Heroic heir in DxD
by king carlos
Summary: High school student? Check. Heir to a human organization that deals with the Supernatural: Also check. Young Castiel Emiya, son of Shirou Emiya, lives what some might consider a double life. Involved with the supernatural since birth, how would he affect the world of DxD? Let's find out! (DxD fic with multiple elements and characters from other stories, slight bashing on the start)
1. Chapter 1

**Except for my OC everything else is of the property of their original writers. All I am doing is a poor imitation of their work.**

* * *

Aaahhhh another morning and the sun is rising the birds are singing and I don`t want to get out of bed. Why did the new school term need to start again? Oh yeah because all the good stuff can't last forever.

My name is Castiel Emiya but people just call me Cas, as the full name is just too tiresome. I am a normal guy, I like video games, anime, light novels, go out with friends and just enjoy living in general...oh and my dad was a hero.

To talk about dad, I must first explain something that may surprise most people out there, and that is the fact that magic is real.

My dad's name was Shiro Emiya and he was a magus, a user of magecraft (complicated stuff). He used his powers to fight for the innocent and saved a lot of lives. He died when I was 6 while saving a devil princess named Ravel Phoenix, apparently, she was kidnaped by some rival faction of her family and my dad went to the rescue as the hero of justice he was. He saved the girl but died in the end. I sometimes wonder why did he ever bothered to do something that could have killed him for the sake of others. Was he tired of living or just running from his woman problems, and yes problems and no problem as he was a bit too active on the conquest game if I can say so.

He was a good man overall and even now some of the gifts he left for me as insurance are really life saviors. For that, I can and truly respect him.

A few years back he and most of the girls he was in a relationship with were not in this universe, literally. He lived in a completely different dimension in a city called Fuyuki, and while living there he ended up getting involved in something called Holy Grail War. It was a battle for a relic that could grant any wish whatsoever. Unfortunately, the artifact was corrupted by an entity called Angra Mainyuu (a man turned god of 'All The Evils Of The World'). On a tentative of freeing itself from the grail, he forced a time that would repeat itself until a favorable ending was reached. During this loops, my dad got to know and love many different girls. Fortunately, during those loops, he realized what was going on and, by using a special mystic code called Jeweled Sword that had the power of the second magic (control of parallel universes), managed to bane the cursed entity together with the grail in a tentative of ending the carnage that was the grail war.

Good part - he managed to do just that and banned the item from the universe;

Bad part - he worked to well and all those related to him and the grail were pulled together to the other universe.

I can barely even imagine the shit storm that was.

Suddenly waking up in another world and all that seems like a really bad day. Fortunately, thanks to the disturbance that was caused by their arrival many beings native from here appeared and all got solved in time... sorta. Again my dad was a Ladies man and he ended up hooking up with someone from this world, and the result is me, Castiel Emyia.

Well no use staying in bed when I know I will have to get up anyway. Let's go to the bathroom first to wash up and change clothes.

While I am brushing my hair I look in the mirror. I got to admit I am not that bad looking at all, tall stature of 1,8 meters, slightly tan skin, gold almost white hair and heterochromatic eyes and in one golden and the other black as obsidian. Not bad at all if I can say so myself.

After I finished my business there I must go make the breakfast and after that I must face off against one of the most difficult battles of the day for me, rivaling the getting out of bed when you really don't want to.

The cooking was truly pleasant, I always liked cooking and was taught how to do it and do it well since I was little by my aunt Sakura. She always made me eat what I made even if it turned out to look like charcoal and taste like it as well, and I even had to smile all the way. After this sort of experience, I made it a point to learn how to cook very fast.

Now to the hard part, waking up HER.

I go to her room and after opening the door what I see was a bunch of feathers that looked as if they belonged to a crow, and there on the bed is my childhood friend Emily Fugimura. We were born almost on the same day but she never really matured, except in her body. She was 17 years old with a wide hip, decent bust (around D-cup), long light brown hair, fair skin, pretty face and black eyes with some violet spots.

For many, she would be called drop dead gorgeous but for me, she was an annoying and lazy bum that if left alone would either starve or live out of cold noodles if lucky.

She was a half-fallen angel and her dad's name is Azazel, the leader of the fallen angels. Apparently, he started dating Taiga-san (Emily's mom) shortly after knowing her and they were quite happy for some time, but as soon as Taiga got pregnant she saw a flash of light and he teleported away as fast as he could. He never even got back to say anything to her face, he just left a note saying he was just a few tens of thousands of years old and too young to settle down. He still sends some money from time to time to help in some way but never showed up in person again.

Honestly, Emily doesn't seem to really care all that much about it, but she told me that if she were to see him the first thing she'd do is punch him so hard as to see if she can recreate a rocket launching.

If I am bad in the mornings (due to my laziness whenever I can) she is worst. Sometimes she just starts shooting spears of light out of reflex so as to make 'the annoying sound go away'. Well, she is getting better this days, but it most likely is because I am making her favorites to eat during the meals. God knows she can't boil water to live and if I don't do it for her she'd live on take-outs.

Okay, let's go. It is simple, the worst that could happen is that I am sent flying, not different from most of my training from aunt Saber or Aunt Rider, and will definitely be easier than waking up Berserker- san, don't know what is worst his punch or his scream in the morning. Okay, let's go.

As I approach the bed I start to shake her.

"Wake up, breakfast is ready." I say in a gentle and calm manner while moving her shoulder so as to wake her up

"Just five more days" she didn't even bother to open her eyes. And why is it days? Aren't the norm minutes? Lazy girl!

"No, it must be now or we will be late for school" a tick mark appears on my forehead.

"Just let me sleep!" she is whinnying now huh. If the guys at school saw this, they would probably say it is kawaii but honestly, it is just plain annoying after some time.

"You have to get up now or next will be a bucket of ice cold water." I tell her as a warning, the worst part is that I really did that sometimes before.

"*sigh* Fine but you owe me. School is just a waste of time and the bed is inviting, want to come in here with me?" she sighs at the end because for her it truly is as she said.

"Nope, and if we get late I will tell Shitori-sempai that it was because of you and then I want to see how that will turn out." I said griming if there is one person that gives Emily the chills around here is Sona.

"You are evil; do you know that?" She glares at me while starting to get out of bed.

"That is rich coming from a fallen angel." I comment mockingly.

"Half-fallen angel and you know it." She says it as if it matters all that much. I know that you do not like your father side of the family all that much but still…

"Ok. Ok. But can we hurry up?" I commented getting feed up of this talk.

"All right but I will want a retribution for ending my beauty sleep later." she says while pouting even harder.

"What beauty? I don't see any beauty here, ain't you just being lazy." I state as I really do not have the patience to deal with her whining right now.

"HEY! My beauty must be cherished!" she starts to glare at me. You know I would think this is cute if not for the droll and biscuit pieces on your chin.

"*sigh* Ok, ok now hurry up. You can keep being delusional later." Can this talk end already? You are being too loud. As I was thinking that I failed to notice her face reddening and her glare darkening.

"You, you, you IDIOT" She shouts and before I can react one punch appears before me.

BANG

What did I say, she is not a morning person...and I never help.

* * *

Streets of Kuoh

As we approach Kuoh academy I can only think that I must have been cursed when being born or something. I was raised surrounded by the violent exes of my father and they make their mission to raise me as someone strong enough to not die young as my dad did.

After going through what I can only call hell (even if the torturers called training) for almost my entire life I finally got pardoned from it when I got an invitation from a prestigious academy to study there as a scholarship student for my Kendo history. Being trained by Saber and sometimes assassin in how to handle a sword since a young age made my 'somewhat' capable, and by that I mean I was undefeated and untouched in any and all Kendo tournaments I participated.

As I entered the school the first thing I noticed was the fact that all the girls are watching me. Their eyes are scary, as in they look closer to beasts trying to jump at poor old me.

Thankfully, for me, shortly after I get on the academy a tumult happens. And there comes a peculiar vision that by any logic should be much more unique than it actually is. This may be one of the best educational institutes in Japan but damn if those three perverts don't make this place look much worst.

Those perverts that are still on this school by some mystery that is beyond my comprehension, and all the student body for that matter, seems to have started the year by making sure their reputation stays unchanged. They most likely were spying on the girls changing room, I mean if you take into account that their noses are bleeding and there is a horde of angry girls after them I will make an educated guess and say I am right.

Let's ignore that and just make sure that in the case they are caught I can take a video to post o YouTube. I've been posting their beatings there for some time now and the views on my channel are going up like crazy these days. Their beatings and Saji's (an annoying dude that lives ogling girls but pretends he is better than those three perverts) rejection by Sona got viral. I am so proud of that.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

"Is it really him Buchou?" a raven-haired beauty asks, she has a ponytail going to her but that is quite big, as is her chest. She has a mix of oriental beauty and a succubus. A combination that, f not for her supernatural origins should be impossible.

"Yes, Akeno it is. He is the son of the sword incarnate." The other girl in the room says while looking at the outside. Her long red like blond hair at her back giving her an alluring charm when combined with her overly developed in all the right places body

"Well, what do you intend to do then?" the first one asks.

"For now I will do nothing. He seems to have no relation to the supernatural as I can't sense any magic energy from him and if it can be maintained this way, all the better." She says remembering the talk she had with her brother during the vacation. He specifically said to try to not make the Tower mad as her family and they are not on quite good terms.

"Fine then, more tea." The blackette offers as she gives a gentle smile.

"Yes of course thank you." The red one accepts, sipping her tea on a way too expensive cup that seems to have details in gold. Talk about having too much cash.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Kuoh school courtyard

Thank god for my senses. Thanks to them I managed to hear quite some useful intel right now.

So the Gremory girl knows who I am, huh. I really must that aunt Rin latter for this mystic code that conceals my energy so as to not allow others to sense my power in any way and make them think I am just a regular human.

All right this is one problem less to think about, now to calculus and many new problems to think about.

* * *

Corridor

As I approach class I can swear it seems like a great evil wait for me, the evil called studying.

Don't get me wrong, neither I nor Emily are dumb in any stretch of the word. Actually being surrounded by many overly serious woman that wanted our "best to the future" made us study a lot, Rin being the main perpetrator. And by that, I mean that whenever they could they would force us to study advanced stuff, like post-doc physics stuff whenever I was resting between my training times.

For Emily, well, she is a born genius. No other way about it, she was just that smart. Heck, I would bet that if she actually tried seriously she could have an early admission to Harvard or something crazy like that when she was 12. And while the two of us are way beyond the other students, the difference between us is that I studied a lot while growing up and she barely even needed to as she learned just that fast. It is like she was born to be a scientist.

Anyway, it seems like my day is shaping up to be a good on…

"Excuse me Castiel-san can I talk to you for a moment." I hear behind me and fell the chills roll over me.

I stand corrected.

"What would you want Shitori-sempai? I am kind of late to class and if I don't go now I will be losing my attendance… again… because of you… again." I say while trying to avoid this whole conversation.

Please let me go. Please let me go. Please let me go. Please let me go.

"It will not take long." She simply states

FUCK!

"So what would you like to talk about." I give up as I am almost sure of what this is all about.

"It is about my question if you would like to enter the student council, have you thought about it?" she asks with a hint of hope in her eyes.

Well considering that I like my species and that every one of the student council members ends up turning into part of her peerage before long I guess my answer is quite clear

"Nope! Not going to happen." I had already grown up surrounded by pushy woman and will not live working under one for eternity thank you very much.

"Can I at least ask you why?" she asks barely masking her disappointment.

"To be honest it is because I am bad with authority in general and if I were to join in we would clash way too much. I prefer to be like this." I lied without a shred of embarrassment. I mean I really am bad with authority's and I doubt it would do any good for me to become your property and for you as well. I know at least three girls that would go on a killing rampage if it happens. Sister of Leviathan or not she would still end up dead.

"*sigh* Fine then, have a nice day Emiya-san" she politely states before turning around and going back to where she came from.

"And to you as well Shitori-san." I wave to her with a genuinely happy smile.

Finally, that woman is insistent I will give her that. She has been trying to get me in the student council since day one and she seems to not get the clue that I really am not that interested.

Sona Shitori or also called Sona Sitri is the student council president. Sona is a young bespectacled woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes. She is quite pretty and has a solid fan base in the school but she is also a devil. From what I could get she is the heiress of the Sitri clan, an influential family among devil-kind and she has a peerage that she is trying to make me a part of.

(WRITER NOTE: I will skip the whole explanation of peerage and stuff as if you do not know yet you just need to look in any other DxD fic to get the idea or check the Info chapter I will post later.)

Well, at least it couldn't get any worse than that.

"Ah there you are Emiya-san" an annoying blond comes from the end of the corridor waving and smiling at me

I really am on a roll today right? Not once but twice being proven wrong.

"What would you like this time around Yuuto?" I say while trying to mask my scow of seeing this crazy dude.

"I would like to ask if you would be interested in a spar later today. It has been quite a while and I believe I may get to defeat you this time around." He requested it as if it was natural.

"I'd doubt that. Can't your challenges be more spaced out, last year you challenged me almost every day and you never even got a point against me." I commented not being capable of stopping an eye roll.

Thanks, aunt Saber. Even if we are apart you managed to make me a stalker, a sword-wielding stalker, a sword-wielding stalker that is a GUY! NO ONE NEEDS THAT IN THEIR LIVE, NO ONE!

"This time will be different I can feel it." He declares exuding confidence.

"Pay up." I open my hand demanding compensation.

"Huh?" He opens his mouth dumbfounded

"Pay up, I will not keep indulging you from now on. Every spar is 10000 yen, in cash." I declare. If I will keep getting into this sort of situations, I may as well get something out of it.

"How can you force others to pay for a simple spar? Isn't spars meant to raise each other through a battle of equals as both try to surpass the other?" He says offended even his smile is wavering and turning into a scow. Yes, come to the dark side, stop being a fake prince and show the world the sword idiot that you are.

"That would be the case if we were equals in swordplay, which we are not. But as you got a point let's do it differently then. _IF_ you win I will pay you 20000 yen and when I win you pay me 10000. Deal?" I got to admit, Rin's tactics on how to egg people to do her bidding work wonders on idiots. According to her, she used to do this all the time with dad.

"*sigh* Fine. After school behind the old school building." He says defeated and them smiles again. Fuck the smile returned. The more prince charming he acts more crazy fan-girls appear at school and it got old for me long ago.

"Till them, bring the cash." I said. At least I will get some cash latter today, that ought to do my mood some good.

Now to class…. Aaaannddd I am late now. DAMN IT.

* * *

After school

After the school ends (and I gave Kiba the regular trashing... again) I can finally go home.

As I am walking I noticed Issei Hyoudou, one of the members of the perverted trio back at school, with some girl dressed as a num. Well, it is time for my one good action of the day.

"RIDER KICK" I said while giving him a taste of a dropkick right in the middle of his face. The fact that he made a sound quite like the defeated enemies on the kamen rider show when taking the strike was a great bonus.

What can I say I was a fan of Kamen Rider. When I was growing up I convinced Rider-san to teach me how to execute this movement, impractical as it may be I still like to use it every once in a while

Seeing the pervert brunet more than three meters away while whimpering on the ground made me have one thought 'And the hero rescued the innocent from the claws of evil once again'.

"Issei-san, Issei-san are you okay." The blond nun asks worried while trying to help him up

"Yeah, I am fine Asia-chan. What happened?" He asks while ignoring the fact that a footprint of my shoes is right on his face

"That man over there came out of nowhere and drop kicked you." She said pointing weakly at me.

Hey, why are you helping him get up? Isn't he a pervert trying to get his claws all over you?

"Hey, I know you. You are that damn pretty boy Emyia from the other class." He says while glaring at me as if I am an old enemy of his.

"And you are the pervert of the school. Good that we are easy to identify." I said as if it was the most basic knowledge on the world.

"Hey it may be true but you don't need to rub it on my face." He says while glaring even more daggers at me. I think that if he had any sort of bloodlust it would be all over the place right now.

"Sorry, it is just that it is so easy with you and your face is not making you any favors. Have you ever thought about a plastic surgery or a change in hair and clothes style? It may make the girls look at you differently." I said in my most honest voice.

"You really think so?" He said with hope in his eyes.

Wow, I can almost see stars of hope on them.

"NOPE, they will still see a pervert, it will just be a prettier version of one." I said enjoying his face morphing from hopeful into depressed and then in an irritated scowl.

"HEY!" He shouts at me after he got to stand up.

Like I said messing with him is just too easy.

"I almost forgot but who are you? Because, as far as I remember, there is no church around here, so why is a nun in this city?" I said turning to the nun that was confused looking from me to Issei repeatedly

"Oh, I almost forgot about it. My name is Asia Argento and I was transferred here" the girl said with a bright smile. "but I got lost and I don't know how to get to the church anymore" she said dejectedly.

"Want me to guide you? I know this city well enough and can take you there." I offered

"Really? Thank you very much!" she gave me a bright smile as an answer.

WOW her smile is so pure. It makes me not even want to mess with her. OK let's go all out and take her there.

"Hey what about me?" Issei asked while pointing to his face.

"You can stay there or go back home." I said offhandedly. "She is most likely safer with me than with a pervert that dreams of having a harem."

"What is a harem, Emiya-san?" Asia said with an almost visible question mark on her head. Is she that innocent?

"A harem is what happens if the guy is too indecisive or get the love of many girls at the same time." I know that way too much for comfort. "While it can be good for the guy it does not always end up well for the girls, as, if there are too many, they just end up feeling abandoned or used by the guy. It is not something to be taken lightly and his objective is becoming the harem king with more than 20 girls to serve him."

"Wow." was all Asia said.

"And the worst part is that sometimes the man just indulges himself with the women in question and makes them work to sustain him. It is a dreadful thing indeed if the man is just looking for a harem and cannot really sustain it." I explained sagely.

"Scary, harems are scary Emiya-san." Asia said trembling a bit.

"Yeah they are, and that is why I did what I did earlier. I wanted him to get always from you as to not let him sink his poisonous claws onto you."

"But he did not seem like a bad man at all." Asia said innocently.

"He just acts like this now." I explained. "Back in school, he is always trying to spy on the girls when they are changing clothes and never cares about privacy, as long as he gets what he wants he simply does not care."

"HEY! CAN YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK ALREADY?" Issei said feeling frustrated. It must hurt, hearing the truth I mean.

"But I am talking right in front of you here." I said with a straight face.

"One of this days I will beat you." He threatens with all the intimidation of a puppy.

"Dude if you can't beat Kiba you can't beat me at all." I said. Really, for the current red dragon emperor to be like this. It is a sad day for the dragon-kind as a whole.

"Anyway let's go Asia-chan. I will take you to the church now." he said trying to take her away from me and the truth.

"Well… I think I will go with Emiya-san. He said he knows exactly where it is and all that." He said trying not to offend Issei in any way.

"You know what? Fine! Go with the pretty face there, I don't care anymore. See you later Asia-chan." He waves at her trying to keep a happy face but when he looks at me I can only seem hate. Well, not the first Longinus that I know that wants to kill me and probably not the last as well.

"Bye, bye and may God Bless you. Amen" she blesses the devil with a smile and genuine wish for his good. Ha so soothing, her all is so soothing.

I don't know what is best he being rejected by Asia or she blessing a Devil. Well, that already made my day better.

After I take her to the church I got to see the state of it. It was awful. After I took one look at it I could sense that there were a few magic signatures from some fallen angels and exorcists. Taking a good look I noticed more details about it, no good details.

As we were in devil territory they must be strays and if not I can just shift the blame all to the devils living here.

Ok, it is decided. I will clean the church until it is spotless from dirt and these dirty people. Sometimes I am happy that one of my abilities let me see if the people around me are any good, and for what I am sensing they are quite the sinners.

I invite Asia for dinner tonight and made it a point that she must be there. And while she is there I will be here to end this charade before they can hurt an innocent. What can I say? I resemble my father waaaaayyy too much sometimes.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I am adding this now, months after I actually started this story, just to tell everyone some details.**

 **First, Castiel has reasons to hate perverted acts. He has seen some shit and he despises anyone that tries to force himself on a woman. And let's face it, Issei on the START of the story was not what anyone could call a good person. He was someone that NEVER tried to ask a girl out but liked to spy on them changing clothes and coment on their bodies, try putting yourself on these girls places. They are basically being treated as meat, they never bothered to talk about their personality or just talk to those girls as human being, but he and his two pervert friends could talk at lengths about how the 'girl A's' breasts are bigger than 'girl's B's, and start to talk about what they would like to do to them. And the worse part, they talked like that right on the middle of the corridors, where everyone could hear those girls being objectified.**

 **I admit that with time he got better and turned into one of the most decent and caring guys out there, but this is just later and right now he is NOT like that at all.**

 **Later I will change his personality a bit and stop the bashing, I even have a harem planned for him and he will get strong, but he deserves bashing on the start of the story.**

 **Castiel is NOT perfect, not by a long shot, and let's say that he reacts to Issei actions a bit too much because of something he saw when he was younger. This world I am building is much darker than CANON, child experimentation, rape, torture, and other stuff like that happen here.**

 **Also, Shirou's death is NOT that simple. He dying is actually a big part of the story and the way he died is extra important. The Old-Maou faction is NOT the same weakling they were on CANON, not by a long shot. They have many devils of super-class and Leader-class, and those can destroy an entire continent in a matter of hours.**

 **Also, this will NOT be a short story and there will be plenty of OCs and Multi-crossovers, but I hope you guys enjoy and will read it.**


	2. Chapter 2

As I approach my home I start planning what I will be doing later tonight. After making sure that Asia-chan is all right I will invite her to sleep here and if she refuses I will hypnotize her to make sure that she follows my demand. That sounded much than I wanted, I may have been influenced by Issei.

As soon as I got home I feel a dark presence in here. Sighing by the fact that I know perfectly well what those dark presences are I open the door with a heavy heart.

"I missed you ONII-SAMA!" a pink missile launches itself at me with no regard to modesty.

"You are too loud Kuroko." I catch her and throw her out of the door and closes it right always.

Before I even can take one more step she is already back and glued to my back.

"Why did you do that Onii-sama? Even though I love you so much, is it you are nervous to be around me, a bishoujo? Don't worry I will ALWAYS be there for you. Be it day be it during steamy nigh…"

"Shut up you pervert." I said.

I throw her out again. Her name is Kuroko Fraga, her mother is a top exorcist named Bazet Fraga and her father is the ancient Irish hero Cú Chulainn, also known as Lancer. She is another one of my childhood friends and is madly in love with me for as long as I can recall. She has a sacred gear called Yog-space, it gives the ability to teleport to anywhere within a 300-meters of the user independent of any type of barrier or defense used against it, believe me, I tried.

When her parents saw that she loved me to that point they decided that they might as well teach me on how to use Runecraft as both of them are experts, Lancer in special as he is on the point of being called legendary on it. Thank god for the small favors, I got an amazing skill that let me fight against much stronger foes in exchange of a loli that never learned the meaning of personal space… maybe it was not quite worth it.

Kuroko is a girl with tawny hair tied into two curly pigtails and the rest of her hair is left to hang as two rows of fringes divided in the middle. Her pigtails are tied in place by a red bow each. She is short at about 1,52 meters and completely flat. She also has a pretty face with a little mole under her left eye and brown approaching red eyes that she got from her father.

She is direct and does whatever she wants and, as part of the security forces of Tohsaka tower called Judgment, she has the duty of save people from stray devils and any other threats… sometimes even regular buglers.

As I said earlier she is part of a special school made by Rin called Tohsaka tower. It is a school mixed up with a research institute about anything supernatural. I was going to go their last year but when a recommendation letter from Kuoh arrived I packed my bags and run to get as far always from that nightmare as most of the teachers there are my sensei's and they already made my life for the last few years a training hell and I don't intend for it to keep going.

As I approach the kitchen I see that Kuroko is there already waiting for me before I can say anything she jumps at me and coils herself in such a way that she looks like a Koala, I better give up as she just won't stop. Sitting around the table there is Emily and her mother Taiga talking. It is surprising how alike these two are, they even look like sisters as Taiga-san got help from Rin to use a rejuvenation spell. While it does not give her the same lifespan that a devil or some supernatural creatures have it helps to stay alive for much longer and even make you look young as she looks just about 26 right now. (WRITER NOTE: I will not explain how she looks if you don't already know just look at the Nasu-verse Wikia for Fujimura Taiga)

I better confess already before it is too late

"Guys I must tell you that we will be having a visit here today." They said nothing just looking confused on why I invited anyone as I never do that. "And she will be sleeping here." and there comes the bloodlust. Most come from Kuroko but I can feel some from Emily as well.

" **ONII-SAMA! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?** " Kuroko screams while I decide to put her on a chair and get some space between us before my ears lose their function permanently. I swear it is in this kind of moments that I believe that she is the daughter of Lancer-sensei as this much bloodlust is not normal.

Emily just stares at me for another minute and then says.

"Is it a she?" The coldness in her looks is scary in and on itself.

"First yes it is a she. Second I met her while coming home and she was around Issei and actually believing he is a good and innocent young man." I barely got to end the phrase and I got to see that their faces are so funny, a mixture of shock and horror with a bit of bemusement. I mean to believe that THAT guy was an innocent and good at heart young man? Being gullible should have a limit.

"Wow talk about being innocent, I just live close by and he still ogles me when we pass each other." Taiga said.

"Tell me about it." Agreed Emily.

"I don't even know him all that well as I just heard of his actions, but I still think he is not a good one to have around." Kuroko said while shaking her head.

"When I saw that I made what any good Samaritan should and dropkicked him."

"…" Kuroko.

"…." Emily.

"… I know I should tell you not to do that, but as a woman, I must say thank you" Taiga broke the silence

"You are welcome. Continuing, after I explained to Asia-chan, the girl in question, about the situation she chose not to comment. After that, we talked a little and I took her to the old church that she would be staying at."

"Ok I get that but how did it go from that so she will be sleeping here?" Emily asks starting to lessen the killing intent, even though Kuroko did not lessen at all.

"That is because the church is full of stray-exorcists and fallen-angels." I say much to the slight shock to most of them.

"Soo… she must be working with the fallen. I still fail to see how it matters to you." Emily said.

"It relates because thanks to my mystic eyes of the good and the bad I saw that she is completely sinless and innocent while they are the violent and crazy types. Some of them I saw that are rapist and others are mass killers. I would not let some innocent girl in there." And now they start to get the picture. Realization on their faces with their bloodlust redirecting to something else other than cute little Asia.

Oh did I forgot to mention, I got Mystic eyes. Well, I say this but they are nothing actually impressive. Their only ability is to allow me to see how pure someone is and the number of sins they have committed. But it only works when I actively try to see it or if they have committed it way too much AND took pleasure on it, the more they enjoyed it the easier it is to see the sins.

"Okay, but what do you intend to do? She can't stay here for long and if the fallen come we will be exposed to the Gremory and Sitri heiresses." Emily argues.

"Well, I intend on after making sure that Asia is sleeping and them going there so as to make sure that they will not be there by the morning. Just need to put a bounded field around the church and no one will know a thing and if they search latter there will be no evidence that points to me." I explained my plan

"Well fine. But either Kuroko or I will be going with you." Emily declares in not so much as a request and more of an order.

"*sigh* Fine. Kuroko do you want to go with me and eliminate some guys that are threatening the peace of the town and are certified bad ones with no redeemable qualities?" I mean if you committed that much sin and took pleasure in all of it you cannot be good.

"Go hunt the evil AND pass the whole night with Onii-sama? This must be my birthday!"

After that we made some small talk while I was making the food, it was quite a calm time without any indication that we were talking about perverts and massacring just a few minutes ago.

* * *

When it was about eight PM the doorbell rang.

"I will get it." I said while stood up.

As I got to the door and opened it there she was, Asia-chan in all her cuteness and purity. Ah, she is acting embarrassed, so cute. Haaa just seeing her already calms me down.

"I am sorry for being late. My caretakers did not want me to come here just after I requested it repeatedly they said yes."

"Don't worry, you got here just in time. I am doing the last touches on the dinner and it will be ready in a minute. Come, come don't need to stay outside getting cold."

"Thank you very much Castiel-san."

"You are welcome."

As we got on the kitchen I introduced her to the girls. Taiga was happy and liked the girl right always; Emilly tried to keep a certain distance as she is quite the introverted at heart to the point where she is sometimes called an ice-queen back at school even if of queen she is nothing(after you got to wake her in front of the TV while surrounded by snacks and melted ice-cream{That I bought for me} more than once all that queenie aura becomes inexistent for you I tell you that); and as for Kuroko she stayed between me and Asia for as long as she could and keep asking questions about her life, and I can swear I heard she growl when I accidently touched her hand while serving the dishes.

After the dinner ended Asia told me that she should be going but as I could not let that happen so I did the responsible thing. I hypnotized her to make her believe it is a good idea to sleep here (which it is) and go to the church tomorrow. I even made her believe that she called those in the church that she would pass the night here and they agreed (I know that the people on this world have some memory manipulation spells but damn if Rin-sensei didn't have better ones).

After I made sure she was sleeping, I got Kuroko and teleported to the old church.

Before we do anything else let's make a bounded field. These are some useful spells that anyone can cast and have so many great effects and they mix so well with my nature to give certain effects that it is scary. Well not like I will use them right now as it would be overkill but still, it still applies. Let's just make a bounded field that isolated any and all information from the inside to the outside so as to make sure that don't matter how much of a disaster I make no one will notice a thing, it is quite similar to the one back in my place so setting it up is a piece of cake.

* * *

Raynare P.O.V.

Inside the basement of the church

Why does nothing seem to be working for us these days? First, when we finally were sent on a mission by Kokabiel-sama to capture and in case of resistance kill the current user of the boosted-gear as soon as we arrive we discover that he was recently transformed into a devil scum. We did not even get to attack him by claiming we did not know that he had a master because as soon as we got here those two high-class bitches came in here as if they owned the place and DEMANDED that we get out of their territory. We made some excuses as to why we should remain here as one of our associates would be arriving shortly and we need to get her to Grigori (Fallen Angel Base).

And now after being humiliated by some scum, we need to listen as that skank Asia dares to demands to go out after she just got here. Unfortunately, before I could deny her wish that idiot Dohnasek actually agreed. Later he said some crap about the last meal or something along those lines.

And now here I am, waiting for some girl that is late for her execution. How rudeof her.

I still cannot understand how God allowed sacred gears to be given to mere insects. They are an inferior race that should not have any right above being slaves of their more evolved counterparts, such as myself. Well, we will fix one of those mistakes tonight as we will extract the twilight healing of that dumb nun and put it on me, someone much more worth it.

Hah, can't she get here already or let something happens because I am dying of boredom right now.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Wow, I just got the feeling that someone dug their own grave right now. Neeh it must be my impression.

First I must bless myself as being overconfident is never a wise course of action.

 **Runecraft** to reinforce clothes and body? Check.

 **Reinforcement** just as my dad would use? Check.

 **Refresh**? Check.

 **Regen**? Check.

 **Haste**? Check.

Use one of my weapons? Hum, nope. It would probably be too overkill.

All right all set and done for me and Kuroko to just need to go in there and get this party started.

Hum, how about for an opening act I imitate Masrur from the anime magi and his explosive charge. I mean facing a bunch of canon folder I suppose I can get somewhat creative in my style of fighting.

"Kuroko I will be going first with a BANG and you come after to eliminate or imprison any and all that survive it. If they are fallen angels the preference is capture with non-lethal or lasting damage as we do not want to provoke the Grigory too much if possible. How about it?"

"Okay. I will go for imprisonment as you said. I can just send them to school and the headmaster will deal with it. After all, this is my typical work on Judgment."

"I can almost hear Rin screaming at me for raising, even more, her workload."

"Nothing that can be done. I have a perfectly reasonable excuse as I am doing the job I am hired to do, after all stop and capture strays were in the job description."

Ok, let's do this. Positioning myself to face the church, bend the knees slightly, put one foot in front of the other, put all the strength I can on the leg on the back, point my hand ahead of my body akin to the tip of a spear and LAAUUUUNNNNCCCHHHHHHHH.

CRASH. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! BOOOOMM!

I _may_ have gone a bit overboard.

* * *

Raynare P.O.V.

What the hell just happened? Are we being attacked by the devils or something? This noise was like a wrecking ball. We must go outside to see what is going on right now.

I, Dohnasek and Kalawarmer got on the surface we could see the destruction. It was like a hurricane passed through here and took everything there was on the surface. Who would do such a thing in a church, even if abandoned? It must have been a cruel and evil devil that decided to go and try to declare war on the factions.

* * *

Kuroko P.O.V.

Ahh, Onii-sama. How can you be so perfect? Even when you go overboard and do a bit more damage than intended your flustered face is still so cute. I decided, later tonight before I go back to the institute I will get on your bed with you and kukuku…

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

I don't know why but I fell offended by those fallen angels and in special that fake dominatrix there. I will deal with them in a bit, but first.

Ready. Aim. Launch.

Strike! And with that Kuroko must go back to not being in heat. She should understand that there is a time and a place for her to act like that and that is never and nowhere.

* * *

Kuroko P.O.V.

OUCH

Why did Onii-sama throw a rock right on my face? Oh, I get it. It must be because he is embarrassed. He is such a tsundere sometimes.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

'Resist the urge Cas, you must resist the urge of throw another rock at her' while chanting this mantra on my mind I start to look over the situation.

The stray exorcists are either dead or running away. Good so all is going according to the plan. Now as for the surroundings I am about 30 meters from the place where a church once was. Wow, I got to say it worked better than expected, what with the fact that before there was a perfectly good building and now there is just rubble and a passageway to the underground that also seem to be about to fall in on itself. I'd say a good job me.

As I walked back to the church I take notice of the targets. They truly are fallen-angels, and there seems to be three of them, one old dude with a fedora and goatee, one woman with long blue hair and boobs that seems about to pop out of what I suppose barely qualify as a dress and a dominatrix pretender that seems to have just got out of a night session with someone (I'd vote the fedora one but hey liberty of gender and all that so who knows it could be the bob jumping there as well no judging).

"Hey, you are trespassing into my new town."

"How dare you talk to us like that, human. Know your place" and as the dominatrix says that I decide to name her dumb1.

"Calm down Raynare" OOHHH so her name is Raynare huh… no, dumb1 seems more fitting "My name is Kalawarmer and we apologize if we trespassed. But as far as we know the owners of this town are the devils and you and that girl over there are humans so I fail to see what do you meant by your town."

Well, let's dub her as smart-cookie because why not.

"This is a human city and I am human. I do not care how you try to put it but we will apprehend you on the accusation of trying to attack and remove a sacred gear of an innocent human girl." I said in a matter of fact way.

"HOH, and who gave you the right to do that?" dumb1 asked.

"That is simple she" I point to Kuroko that finally starts griming and takes a serious face "is part of Tohsaka tower enforcement unity Judgment and it is on their motto to never let this sort of situation happen on their watch and I am a concerned citizen that decided to help."

"Come without resistance and you will be spared." Kuroko said.

Please resist, I still want to have a chance of beating down some assholes as those exorcists have been put down before I could even see their faces due to my *cough* dynamic entry *cough*.

"HAH, as if we would give up. It has been ages since the last fight. I hope you can entertain me, boy." Okay, so the dude will not be wiped-boy but will be moob#1 huh.

Well, negotiation failed as they are releasing their power... and what a letdown it was. I mean the two woman are barely mid-class fallen angels and the dude, while more powerful, is just about a high mid-class. Man, and they think they are a superior race and everything. How bad you can screw up, let's show them.


	3. Chapter 3

Vali-ish comes to me from the front right away. He seems to be a close combat fighter as he does have some degree of technique. Meanwhile, dumb1 decided to give air support by throwing light spears at me.

Color me surprised they do make a good team after all. As Vali-ish is hacking at me with a concentrated light spear she throws weak but fast spears to not let me go on the offensive.

"Come on boy. Show me what you got!" Exclaims Vali-ish as he uses a pierce attack right to my shoulder. I managed to avoid it but dumb1 came in and managed to hit me on my left leg while I was distracted. Thanks to my rune-craft reinforcing my clothes and body it barely was a scratch but it still annoys me that she managed to do that.

"Let me hear you scream, ape." Dumb1 laugh as she readies another spear.

As the situation seems unfavorable I decide that it is best to make some space between us so as to undo their momentum.

I throw a kick and when Vali-ish makes a guard so as to avoid the damage I jump back without even connecting with him by using my other leg as a springboard. Seeing this dumb1 shoots her lance so as to stop me from getting away but I avoid it as well.

Well, now that I got some space between us I can finally start fighting back in a way that makes sure that they would not certainly die or get any lasting effects. I know it may sound weird but it is for the better that I avoid killing them as no one really knows what can trigger another war between the factions and I prefer living my days in peace. I mean this is devil territory and if some fallen dies here (insignificant they may be) it can work as a spark to those that want conflict.

First things first let's remove dumb1 from the equation. I point my finger at her and get ready to use one of the curses that aunt Rin taught me. This one is a personal favorite and is especially useful to disarm and knock out without killing or allowing any permanent side effect.

" **Gandr**!"

It looks weak as it seems, to the untrained eyes, just like the most basic of the fireballs that beginner mages can do. The difference is that it is not focused on flames or even heat for that matter as what it does is curses the body of the opponent so as to make the target feel sick and tired. One shot is like the flu and if it gets to 10 or more the opponent will feel like the last stage of cancer. The best part is that the effect is temporary so it can even be used to escape classes by cursing yourself, did it a lot last year. Having a cold for 10 minutes to escape boring classes when my favorite games were calling me was so worth it. The only hard part was no get caught using magic by the devils but if you have enough control this sort of thing is possible.

"Ha, that is all you can do? Really you apes are beyond weaklings. You should simple prostate yourself to me!" Dumb1 is proving herself worth it of her name right there.

"Raynare stop your rabbling and take him seriously. It is obvious that he is not that weak as he managed to survive up until now with barely a scratch and we must fight him with all our power in a way befitting of warriors." I am starting to like this one.

"What are you talking about now. You are the one who let the nun go away and you are also the one who stopped me from killing the heiresses as it should have happened. Why do you insist on doing this stuff?"

"It is called having some degree of self-respect and acting as more than just a stray-devil. Now hurry up and get ready as he seems to be ready to shot another one of those magic's of his."

"What does it matter if he does? It had less impact than any other fireball I had ever seen before and I barely feel any different."

" **Gandr**." I shout as this conversation started to bore me.

"HA!" dumb1 shouts as she slices another one of my gandrs. Idiot. As long as it has contact with you in some way it will have an effect. Just one or two more and she will be out of commission.

As I was thinking this Dohnasek (he seems to deserve an own name somehow now that he expressed himself more) come raging. Left leg, right arm, left armpit, right tight, shoulder, hip, he just keeps trusting his spear faster and faster. Meanwhile, dumbitch ( _!she evolved!_ ) started to try and create a stronger lance to throw at me. Key-word is trying because after two Gandrs she must be feeling like crap and barely capable of concentrating.

I just keep avoiding all those attacks from Dohnasek as, while he is good I have trained and spared a few times with Lancer-sensei and Emilly, and she is damn good with it, and while Dohnasek is adept to the lance he still pales in comparison to either of them. I decided to concentrate my efforts in creating another Gandr as it does take about 5 seconds to make a decent one that can affect the target swiftly and as I do not want to make another one let's make a special edition of 8 seconds.

* * *

Raynare P.O.V.

Why do I feel like I just woke up after going to an Octobers fest and decided to drink until I passed out and then drunk some more? My head is exploding and my body feels like crap. It is for this type of stuff that Dohnasek should have listened to me and just let me take the nun twilight healing. If I had it I would not be feeling like this. I just want this all to end so I can lie down on a bed and demand soup!

As Dohnasek is fighting that ape I decide that I will create the strongest lance I possible can and end this fight already. Unfortunately, it is not working all that well as I just can't concentrate well enough thanks to this headache.

Why is that ape pointing at me? Why did he throw another one of those pathetic excuses for magic at me again?... Why is it that even though I destroyed it the same way as the last two he is smirking at me?... Why is the world spinning?... Why is the floor so close?

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Ha, I did it. Her face when falling down from the sky face first was worth all the effort. Now to the fallen in front of me.

"Wha- what have you done?" he asks while trying to open some space and staying on guard.

"it is called **Grand**. It is a little curse that simulates disease. It is non-lethal, but if enough hits happen it can as well kill as the brain starts to believe that there is no surviving and just shut itself." I explained. There is not much of a problem to explain that as it is a common technique back in the Tower so anyone that saw it could identify it with time.

"Are you contracted to some devil? Just someone that is pure evil would even develop this kind of abomination." He says while showing a disgusted face.

"What can I say this is 100 percent human magic developed by human magus with no relation to devils what so ever. And about being evil... after some of the homework and studies about principles and advanced forms of magecraft with Rin I must say that you were not that far away to the mark." I admitted.

"No matter. Now that I know your ace you are doomed."

Pffff. My ace? Far, FAR from it. Can't he see that I am holding back so as to not destroy them instantly? I mean look at this place it is all destroyed by me in a question of seconds and they think I can't do better. Yep, he is muscles for brain type.

Now for a change of pace let's make it different. Instead of throwing Gandr let's make it cover my hands. Now this feels much more natural, I always preferred close combat and that's why I hated to fight stealth and long distance flying enemies. It takes always my excitement and actual power ends up replaced by strategy more often than not.

Now here I come little fallen-Kun try not to die on me.

* * *

Dohnasek P.O.V.

That dumb girl. Why couldn't she have heard me even once in her damn life? This warrior in front of me is obviously greatly tested in dodging and just with her support did we managed to make even a scratch on him and she still kept felling that he is weak. She must be a special type of stupid.

At least with her help, I discovered his secret. He is a mage with no real focus on close combat preferring to focus on dodging so as to prepare his spells. He did say he is connected to that new organization, the Tohsaka Tower, after all. Now I just need to keep pressing forward and eventually, I will win as I am Dohnasek a mighty fallen angel and direct subordinate of Kokabiel-sama.

As I am getting ready to go at him by summoning an even stronger light lance I noticed something strange. He has covered his hand with a strange flame that looks like the one from before. I should probably avoid touching those.

BAAM

What happened I was right there in the middle of the wreckage that was the church and now I am on the middle of the woods and I feel like my whole body is in pain, not only that but my head is exploding and I can barely open my eyes.

"Did I go too hard on you? Poor baby crow I will make it all go away now." That boy, no that demon, said it approaching me. I could not move as he touched me with those strange flames. There was no burn but I fell worst by the second and suddenly sleeping don't seem like a bad iddd…..

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

That should wrap this up. Going from the front is better after all. He didn't even seem to notice how I got right under him while he was charging that precious lance of his and just punched him once. I wouldn't do that earlier because if I did dumb1 would have teleported far always from here before I even got to her. Now as I finished administering his dose of gandr let's see how Kuroko is doing.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-SSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

You know what it may be better to just go always already as my job here is done and I really don't want to deal with her now.

Before I managed to get one more step she appeared in front of me and tried to jump at me in a way befitting a swimmer in the Olympics. Seeing a 13 years old girl jumping at you like this with blood on her eyes breathing hard AND spotting a nose bleed I did the only thing a responsible guy would do and stopped her.

HEAD CHOP

... In a not so common way but I know she can take much more. Heck, anything less she just ignores as she is just this resilient.

"Get out of the ground as I know that this was far from enough to hurt you." I eyed Kuroko that was lying on the ground.

"Hehehe, from down I can see Onii-sama at another angle. Now stay like this for just one second more." she said with a bit of droll on her face and getting her cell phone ready to take a picture.

"I. Said. Get. Up!" I took her by the base of the neck and put her in a standing position. "And no pictures." I took her camera. She already got an album of my pictures with some being while I was taking a bath and she still had not had enough and is trying to complete another one.

"So how was your fight Onii-sama?"

"Quite disappointing. I mean my biggest worry was not killing them after all." I said in a tired tone.

"Well, what did you expect? I mean we are equivalent to mid or high high-class devil's in combat power after all. And you are accustomed to fighting stronger foes than them anyway." She said as if it was obvious.

"And your fight how did it go?" I asked with some curiosity.

"Weeellll…." Kuroko started to avert her gaze.

* * *

A few minutes earlier

Kalawarmer P.O.V.

Why did it come to this? We were just waiting for that nun to come back while getting the removal ritual ready when we were suddenly attacked. Before we understood what happened we were faced with some midget and a teenage boy. And to make matters worse Raynare decided to showcase a severe case of chronic idiocy as she decided to insult those two that were probably responsible for the destruction that befell us. And now here I am, facing a midget while Raynare and Dohnasek are facing the boy. I should finish her quickly as she seems like the easier target and those companions of mine will probably need support.

"I think we did not introduce ourselves before. I am Kalawarmer, fallen angel of Grigory under Kokabiel-sama."

"My name is Kuroko Fraga and I am part of Tohsaka Tower enforcement unit Judgment." She declares full of confidence sticking out her chest like she is proud of herself.

"Ok, now you can stop lying to me. There is no way that someone that is part of THAT Judgment would be a midget that looks like she could dress-up as a boy." I said the obvious I mean look at her, she is small, no muscles to be seen and looks like she is just 13. No way she is part of Judgment as to be a part of them you need to be capable of going toe-to-toe with a high-class devil at the very least.

"What did you say? Did you call me flat? A child?" she says while looking slightly spaced out as her eyes are vacant for some reason.

"Yeah I did say that, so what?" I said as I prepared myself to fight.

"Die."

* * *

Kuroko P.O.V.

She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die. She must die.

SHE. MUST. DIE.

Before she can react I already am upon her using my sacred gear to teleport to right above her. I take the black keys that I got as equipment to help me in my fights. The fact that they can vary in size and thickness depending on the energy put on them is a great plus to me.

As I puncture her shoulder she starts screaming in pain as black keys are extremely powerful against those who have sinned and she as a fallen definitely have.

She tries to attack me with her lance so I just reposition myself again to her left side and puncture her on the left tight. The process continued and before long she can't move anymore as she got more than 13 black keys all over her body in non-lethal points. As I position myself to finish the job a thought struck me

(If they are fallen angels the preference is capture with not lethal or lasting damage as we do not want to provoke the Grigory if possible) – by Onii-sama.

What do I do now? On one side she deserves the black key going through her guts in the other side Onii-sama asked me not to kill her. Oh, Who am I kidding? Onii-sama gets the priority.

As I can't kill her and any more black keys will ensure that she dies let's end this with a simple kick to the head.

THUMP.

And done. Now, where is Onii-sama?

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

*sigh* this Koala girl really outdid herself here. Seeing smart cookie it is clear that she is barely be hanging for dear life now. Well in case of doubt just call Tohsaka-sensei.

What can possibly go wrong?

* * *

 **Writer Notes:**

 **This is my very first fic. I am just writing whatever I feel like it and there will be many characters from other franchises on this fic in the future.**

 **This fic would never have gotten to the point it has if it wasn't for HunterXKiller87. He truly helped me a great deal and to anyone interested you should totally check out his story, I can assure you all that it is very entertaining.**

 **And to those that did not realize up till now, Kuroko is based on Kuroko from the Toaru Majutsu no Index. And yes this story will have a harem, a big one at that but the girls WILL have different reasons to like the MC. And no he is NOT OP... much. It is just that I decided to make the rift between classes more clear and hard to beat.**

 **Castiel is equivalent to high high-class while Kuroko is equivalent to mid high-class so beating low and a barely high mid-class easily is obvious.**


	4. info 1

Power levels can be divided as such:

Low-level devil/angel/fallen angel (2 wings)

Mid-level devil/angel/fallen angel (4 wings)

High-level devil/angel/fallen angel (6 wings)

Ultimate-level devil/angel/fallen angel (8 wings)

Super-level devil/angel/fallen angel (10 wings)

Faction Leader-level devil/angel/fallen angel (12 wings)

They can also be subdivided in Low, Mid and High for each stage.

This power levels are just for the total of energy accumulated on the body and nothing else. The actual battle capacity can be higher or lower depending on equipment and/or battle prowess.

Devils Peerage:

Made a few hundred years ago so as to deal with the low numbers of the devil race and make sure of their survival. Latter, the system became more of a war simulation game between the elite of the devil race called Rating Game. It is normal for them to resolve disputes in a rating game.

The devils have a limited number of pieces they can resurrect them being:

-1 Queen (give a boost in all physical and magical prowes of the user)

-2 Rooks (reinforce the durability of the user body making them have stronger defense and offense but lower speed)

-2 Knights (gives a large boost to the speed of the user)

-2 Bishops (Rise the magical ability and training speed on all magic related matters to the user)

-8 Pawns (Do not give much of a boost in any are but allows more versatility and training speed on the user in all areas, simplifying a pawn have more growth potential but lower inherent power)

Factions of notice and their leaders:

-Devil race (4 Maous: Syrzechs Lucifer, Serafall Leviathan, Ajuka Beelzebub and Falbium Asmodeus)

-Fallen angel (Grigory with their leader being Azazel)

-Angels (Heaven with their leader being the seraphs Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael)

-Yokai and Shinto pantheon (closely connected with their leaders being respectively Yasaka and Amaterasu)

-Norse Pantheon (Leader is Odin)

-Greek Pantheon (Leaders are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades)

-Tohsaka Tower (made by the members of the Nasu-verse that ended up in the DxD-verse, The leaders are: Rin as Headmaster, Luvia as Combat team leader and Saber as field fighting leader)


	5. Chapter 4

"Let me get this straight." Rin's said with a voice sounding pacific and utterly calm on the phone "You invaded a church."

"Yes."

"Attacked and killed many stray exorcists that most likely are connected to the Grigori." She is talking in such a sweet voice that not even look like she is ready to rip me apart.

"Yes"

"Almost killed three fallen angels without being directly provoked **and** you took the initiative."

"Y-y-y-y-yes…" a _slight_ _very slight_ tremble in my voice is the only indication of the dread I fell growing within me.

"And last but not least you did it on devil territory without the consent of the devils themselves that, may I add, are the little sisters of TWO FUCKING SATANS." She screams and I swear I see fire coming out of her eyes

"…yes."

"Great, just great. You may have started a new war to the factions. One against us at that.

Tell me you have a good enough reason for this and thought of some way to NOT make me decide that going to prison for killing you would be acceptable." Rin said with a voice full of anger.

Breath in, breath out. Okay, my next words can and most likely will be the deciding factor if my life will still be among the living or if I will go visit Hades for a more permanent stay than desirable.

"It was like this. I was dealing with my own business, you know trying not to get noticed by those two Maous little sisters and all that, when I met a nun. She asked me to take her to the ABANDONED church as she did not know the way. When I got there I noticed that the place was full of stray exorcist and fallen angels.

That in and of itself would not make me go on a killing spree but tanks to my eyes I noticed that all of them are the lowest of the low, being killers, rapist, and one I swear was a necrophilia maniac. I would never let an innocent and pure girl like her in their presence as she would be killed. So I decided to go and deal with them together with Kuroko, that invaded my home again" so I told the events that happened before the attack and put that last comment while looking at the little girl that was smiling sheepishly at me without a single trace of embarrassment.

"Okay. I get the picture but tell me what do you intend to do now? Even if you have not killed the fallen's the very attack itself is a problem. And you better not be thinking of asking me to fix everything to you." She said with cold stell in her voice.

"Weeeell… I was going to ask you to deal with it."

"Give me one good reason why should I do that."

"The nun in question has a healing sacred gear that you did not research up until now." I said, hoping that it would work while sweating bullets.

"Wouldn't work. She is part of Grigori by what you had said."

"She seems to have not formally entered and as she was going to be sacrificed according to smart cookie…"

"Who is this 'smart cookie'?" Rin asked with some hint of amusement in her voice. She knows I usually give embarrassing nicknames to some of my enemies (the forgettable ones mostly) or anyone I want to piss off. For the first half of the first year, the perverted trio was for me breast-pervert, pervert-Shimpachi, and one-pervert man.

"She was one of the fallen angels. According to her, they pretended to be representatives of Grigory by the orders of her superior to attract Asia-chan to Kuoh to get her sacred gear. Something about poetic justice in killing a nun in devil territory in a church and liking to provoke the devils."

"What is the name of the sacred gear that she has?" I may get out of this scot-free after all. HURAY HURAY.

"It is Twilight Healing."

"…Deal." I grim so hard that a bit more would make me look like a joker rip-off. "You are to come here this weekend to bring her." She said with mirth in her voice as she knows any and all happiness was sucked right out of me.

"Do I really need to go?" I better start pleading now or I know I will be pleading in the near future during a new and 'improved' version of my training/torture. "I swear I will not do anything and will behave. Kuroko can take her to you tonight and you may even start to research the gear earlier. What do you say?" I am praying here for you God, Michael, Lucifer, Zeus, and to any and all superior being please do not let me go there.

"You can choose. You can come here OR I will let Yun-chan go visit you whenever she wan…"

"I will be on the front of your desk tomorrow morning if it would please you more, Rin-sama. I will even bring chocolates, flowers or anything else you may want." I said to her with more desperation than any man should ever use on their voice. Any man doesn't have to deal with Kuzuki-chan, I may love her but if she could be here whenever she wants we may as well live together.

"It is great that we reached an understanding. And it can be on the weekend as we do need to get ready over here."

Better not ask ready for what. If she tells me I may not sleep until Friday night and would be too exhausted to surviv... I mean train.

"Oh and tell Fraga-san that she must come back here as fast as possible and bring those three fallen angels as we do need to deliver them back to their bosses in one piece."

After that, we just said our goodbyes and ended the call. I better enjoy this week to the max as next week I may or may not be capable of getting out of bed.

"Kuroko, Rin-sensei said that you must hurry back to the school and bring those three with you." I said pointing at the three fallen fallen angels (Pun intended).

"*sigh* Fine Onii-sama." She said that and suddenly she teleported to right in front of my face and came for a kiss. I throw her out again before she managed to go that far, a hug is acceptable but a kiss is going too far.

"Why don't you let me kiss you? You know I love you so much so what is the problem, isn't a simple kiss acceptable even among brother and sister?"

"A sibling kiss with sibling love is one thing, what you have is closer to the horniness that a 12 years old boy has when he first discovers masturbation." I said, knowing it was true. I myself passed through this faze but I made it a point to end it really quickly as it would be safer for me. With some of the more enthusiastic girls that were around me, it was better sexually frustrated than dead.

"But you know I am like this only for you." She starts pouting. "When will you finally accept my feelings?"

"Maybe when you are 14 as I do not want to go to jail." I said truthfully. I am a man and I do like her when she is not high on arousal, and she is quite cute. But I will not touch her when she is not of an appropriate age and that me being with her can be considered a crime in so many places around the world, and to not be like THAT trash of a human being that I want to remove every bone and crush them all afterward while he still breathes.

"So after I am 14 in two months we can be lovely dovely?" She said with hope and I can almost see stars in her eyes.

"When we get there we will see. But I can take you on a date." She seems so happy that she is about to jump at me again. "now hurry as Rin is waiting and is not pleased with you." And just like that, all her happiness is gone. Kukuku she is so easy to read when around me that it is funny.

As she leaves caring the three fallen angels I start to go back home while thinking about how to explain to Asia-chan that she will not be capable of coming to the church again.

* * *

A few hours later

Rias P.O.V.

What happened?

I mean seriously, what happened?

I was back home doing my homework when suddenly I got an urgent call from Sona about something strange that happened at the abandoned church that those fallen angels were.

When I got here all I see is pure destruction. This must have been the result of a great and epic battle between the fallen angels and whatever the person that came to meet them was.

"Do you know anything Sona?"

The small woman beside her turned to her and said:

"No Rias. I never even saw how this came to pass.

I even let some familiars some distance always as to warn us in case of a disturbance, but as soon as it detected anything the whole place was like this and there was no sign of those fallen except for some blood and feathers that most likely belongs to them." Sona explained with a grimace on her face.

Their worry was understandable, as the sisters of two of the Maous they were a prime target for assassination and as such an event like this so close to them made them quite scared.

"Akeno we are going back right now. You are to remain beside me at all times and be ready to intercept and help me in case of a fight." Rias commanded as the **king** she was.

"Yes my lord." Akeno said with a slight bow.

"Did you parodied Sebastian?" Rias asked with a twitch of her eyebrows. Her **queen** was an old friend that she trusted with her life but she loved to tease people WAY TOO MUCH.

"What are you saying, I have no idea of who you are talking about, is he one of the men from those posters in your room? Maybe the one on the ceiling you look when masturb…"

"Okay let's go." Rias said with a large blush on her face deciding to end things here and not let her finish. Otherwise, it would be too humiliating. Sometimes Akeno made Rias re-comprehend why she was called a super S "Sona until tomorrow. If anything else happens you just need to warn me." Saying that and without waiting for any comment she turns around and left using a teleportation circle with Akeno.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

After a while, Sona's **queen,** Tsubaki, turns to her and decides to ask.

"What do you make of this situation Sona?"

"I think Rias has some questionable tastes." Sona said a bit spaced out.

"I wasn't speaking about that but about this attack. Do you think it was a ploy to try and reignite a war between our two factions?" Tsubaki asked with some worry. She has been reincarnated for just a few years but she understood that should a war happen now would most likely be an extinction kind with no real winners.

"I doubt that. They were no more than low level fallen with no backing or real importance so at most it may raise the tension somewhat. But we must not tell my sister or anyone else of this situation." She said sternly and with a hard face.

"And why is that" Tsubaki asked tilting her head slightly with a doubtful expression on her face."

"My sister would come here." She said with a fully serious face. "That is reason enough for me to not talk and risk a war between factions. My sister not coming is more than compensation enough."

"*sigh* As you wish. Now are we going home or do you want to do something else?" Tsubaki accepted her **king** decision and decided to ask... even if she did not agree with the reason for not calling Serafall-sama.

"We are to go to school right now as to upgrade the detection and protection bounded fields surrounding the school." Sona decided because simple going home to sleep in this sort of situation would be stupid.

"At once." Tsubaki said with a stoic face that did nothing to hide her beauty, I mean she was a tall girl with bountiful (not obscenely so like Rias and Akeno but still above the average) breasts, long dark hair and glasses that just highlighted her sexy-secretary vibe.

"Oh, and about the transfer student that will be arriving tomorrow we will not make contact for the time being." Sona said after thinking for a short while.

"What? Are you sure? I mean, you finally found someone new that you wanted for the peerage and you will not even go talk to him?" saying that Tsubaki was surprised was an understatement. For the last few years Sona has been traveling across Japan with the excuse of chess championships that she wanted to win so as to search for someone that had a sacred gear and just a few weeks back did she managed to do that. For she to give up in approaching him was a shook for the big beauty.

"*sigh* It is not that I do not want to approach him. It is just that after this attack on the fallen our main priority should be defending ourselves and investigating who is the perpetrator. For all we know, it could as well have been him or even Emyia-san... even though I highly doubt the last one as I could not find any energy sign on him despite who his father was." a sweet drop went down her back when she remembered hearing from her sister some of the stories about Emyia-san's father. A man that could fight on equal grounds with Syrzechs, the strongest devil.

"It is as you say, I was just shocked before." Tsubaki apologized after comprehending her **king** reasoning. Really, who would be stupid enough to try going recruiting in this sort of situation?

* * *

Rias P.O.V.

I must recruit whoever did that. So much power, if it was just one person he/she must be strong and this is her first and foremost necessity right now. I need a strong piece so as to terminate my engagement with that harem bastard. If whoever did that could make it in such a quiet fashion it must be quite capable and may as well be the key to what will happen in my future. I must get he/she, I just must.

"Akeno who do you think would likely be the responsible for that"

"Oh, why the question Buchou? Are you going to go after them?" Akeno asked with an amused smile on her face.

"Yes, I intend on recruiting whoever did this." I said as it was nothing more than natural. Who wouldn't want to go after a mass killer that infiltrates their territory undetected? That sounded better before she actually put it into words.

"Are you sure this is wise Buchou? I mean it could be dangerous." Akeno said with worry all over her face. If this person could create this much destruction and not be detected he must be dangerous and a threat to them as well.

"Even so we must do it. We need strong pieces so as to end my engagement as I know Riser will never accept a break-up." 'I mean I am beautiful and he would be lucky to have me. It is just that he is not my type at all. I prefer Issei as his eyes on me are always so full of admiration and veneration even though he usually has this eyes while not looking at my face it is still cute.' Is what Rias did not say, but thought on her head, she always liked to have control and 'little Issei' was just the type she liked the most.

"So? Who you think it may be?" I asked again to my precious **queen**.

"I have no idea but it is possible that it is someone related to Emyia-san as he is connected to that Tohsaka Tower. And even if we could not feel a single trace f magic on his person it wouldn't be strange if there is something along the lines of a body-guard or someone that IS related to the supernatural that came to visit him." Ah, it is so good to have a smart one at my side. She always has a new perspective that I just did not think about.

"Ok them tomorrow we will call him to the club room to make some questions what do you say."

"Yes my lord." Again with that. Why does she like making fun of me so much? I mean it is not like it is that fun right? Right?

* * *

Later that night

Kuroko P.O.V.

As I approached home I can almost feel the impending doom over me. I just know it will not go as well as I'd like. Let's get this over quickly.

On the moment I got into the school I head straight to the infirmary so as to threat these fallen angels, after locking them in anti-magic chains as so they cannot struggle.

Now let's head to the director as she will be pissed at me. At least Onii-sama agreed to go on a date with me after I turn 14, hhaaa~~~~ O~~nii~~~~sa~~ma. I better clean the drool before I enter as I must keep a professional image.

"I am sorry I am late Rin-sama. After I got here I took the captured fallen to the infirmary to get treatment."

"Ok now give me a full report of what happened. Do not leave any detail." She says in an utterly neutral voice.

And then I give the full story with no beautification or grossing over a detail. At the end of it, the director reclined on the chair and sighed again.

"Why is it that he got so much of his father on the areas that he should have avoided the most. He is just as impulsive and stupid every once in a while."

I remained quiet as I know who she is talking about and also know that when she is thinking of him it is best to just shut up.

"Now as for your punishment" I shiver inside but remain impassive on the outside, she is my boss and this is my workplace so anything less is just unsightly. "You are to go on a survival training with HIM." Oh, fuck it not going on my knees and crying is already professional enough.

"And when do I start and until when must it be kept going." Please just an hour, please just an hour, please just an hour.

"It will be for five hours starting in one hour. I would make it now but your mother heard of your little stunt and decided to have a talk with you." Can this day get any worst I mean survival training AND my mom lecture? I'd take a high-class stray hunt any day.

"I will be going then." With a heavy heart, I left the room. At least no one is having a worse day than me.

* * *

Raynare P.O.V.

Where am I? The last thing I remember was the fighting that boy and suddenly I started to feel bad and the floor getting closer to me.

There doesn't seem to have any wounds on my body but I am restrained on this bed by some weird chains and cannot use my powers.

The door begins to open and a girl enters the room. Who is she? She seems 15 or 16 years old girl with long hair reaching the middle of her back and all pink with two pigtails adorning her face. She has a cute face, modest C-cup breasts, pink eyes and a slightly pointed ear.

"Who are you and where am I? Release me this instant or feel the wrath of the great Rayn…"

BITCH SLAP

What just happened? Did she just slap me? Me?

"How dare you? Don't you know who I"

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

She slapped me twice. What is this girl? Doesn't she know what she is doing? I am a part of Grigory and they will not stay quiet when they hear one of their own was treated like this!

"Now you must answer my questions. Have you fought a 16 years old pale blond man earlier tonight, yes or no?" she asked

"Why should I tell you any

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

"Yes or no?"

"Unhand me this…

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

BITCH SLAP

"Yes or no?"

"Yes, yes I did it." Done now she will not slap me.

"Have you wounded him in any way shape or form?"

"Yes, but it was merely a scratch." I mean we were fighting so getting a scratch is no biggie.

STAB

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts! What the hell I just answered your damned question and you stabbed me?"

"You know"

STAB

"I am usually a sweet girl that would never hurt a fly."

STAB

"But you did an unforgivable crime"

STAB

"and any crime should be punished."

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

STAB

"Huh, already fallen asleep, we are just getting started. Here some phoenix tears. The night is still young and ANYONE THAT DARES TO TOUCH ONE FINGER ON MY LOVED ONE WILL BE PUNISHED ACCORDINGLY, AND THIS YUNO KUZUKI SWEARS SHE WILL DO THE PUNISHMENT."

"But don't worry you will not die, not on my watch. Daddy and Mommy taught me well enough how to get the most pain with the least injuries and with these phoenixes tears you will be a great test subject. I will make Caster Okaa-sama proud." So said Yuno Kuzuki, only daughter of Caster and Souichirou Kuzuki.

* * *

 **Writer's** **Not** **e**

 **I saw that it may be confusing to some people so I will explain somethings.**

 **First, all servants EXCEPT Archer and Gilgamesh are present in this world. Archer, because he is a counter-guardian and as such was recalled to his work; Gilgamesh because he simply refused to enter a world with so much divinity on it, so he used one of his treasures to avoid being pulled in there. Zouken was killed on sight by the angels as soon as he arrived on that world.**

 **Kirei is not here as there was not a single version of the war that he survived, the same as Shinji for this fic.**

 **Another thing is that in this fic Issei was a devil before the start of his second year as Rias decided to make a move earlier instead of waiting for him to die to turn him. All she needed was flash her boobs at him for him to sell his soul.**

 **And I apologize if my description of the characters is different than their canon counterparts, but this is a fanfic and is my first try so please be comprehensive with me. I am doing this because I enjoy it, no rewards or anything so if there is some mistake in your opinion about the character way of acting you is welcome to try doing it yourself.**

 **And another point is that my mothe** **r language is NOT English, in fact, it is Portuguese so if there are orthography mistakes I apologize. It is not easy to write in a different language.**


	6. Chapter 5

Another beautiful day started.

The sun is shining.

The birds are singing.

And, I swear to the big G up there, someone (possible Zelretch) is laughing at my misfortune.

I mean, I went out to do a good thing to an innocent nun and now I must go back to the headquarters for the weekend. I just know they will put me on survival training for half a day while I am hungry, I just know it.

*sigh*

It is best to get going to school so as to not get late.

But first let's wake the girls up as Emilly and Asia are still asleep.

Oh shit, I almost forgot that I must talk to Asia about her situation and what will be happening to her. Jooooooyyyy…

As I approach their bedrooms I notice something interesting, there seems to be moved inside.

Oh, it seems Asia woke up and is trying to wake Emilly and Taiga. She is so cute with a flushed face for the effort of trying to do that. I suppose it is best to help now.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well Asia-chan?"

"Ah" she even jumped in fright but as soon as she sees it is me she smiles. So cute and pure. "I just woke up and was trying to get them up as it is almost time for school but they seem to be incapable of getting up."

Smiling at her I say "Let me see what I can do."

As I approach them I notice that Taiga is hugging a bottle of sake and Emilly was covered by snacks and two bottles of coca-cola around her. Really they are mother and daughter through and through.

Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, deep breath in and…

"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUMS! IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP."

"Wha… what is going on?" Emilly jump scared and looking all around like there was going an enemy attack. She even had a light spear out, but with drool on her face and covered in pieces of snacks it was anything but threatening. That is my childhood friend for you, even when armed she manages to be unthreatening.

When she looks at me I was already taking pictures of her as this is too fun to pass up.

"*sigh* Did you had any good reason to give me a jump scare?" she said with a glare that could send any lesser man crying to mommy.

"*gulp*I know you are pissed but we are getting late and must get going. Or you must, at least, as I need to talk to Asia-chan here about her situation."

"…Fine but you owe me one."

"Anything." I agree instantly. My main fear is woman's wrath and Emily is among the top women I do not want to mess with when she is truly pissed off.

"Next time take me."

"What?" what does she mean, take her to where exactly?

"The next time you go out to fight take me instead of some other girl. I wanted to go and you took Kuroko, it is unfair. I need to use my powers once in a while or I will get rusty." She said full of confidence with a tone that says it was set in stone and my input is unnecessary.

"Fine, I will do it."

Suddenly another person beside us decided to talk.

"Sorry to interrupt but I must get going. The people in the church must be worried about me." Asia says while already getting up.

"No Asia-chan, they are not even there anymore." Asia looked shocked when I said that. "I went there myself last night and made sure of that."

"What do you mean? What happened?" she looks confused. Hah even her confused face was cute and pure.

After this, I took Asia to a separated room so as to talk to her in private and explained everything to her about what happened last night. What those people were and did, what they planned to do with her and what I did to them. After everything, her first question was a surprise for me.

"Are they ok now?" she decided that before what will happen to her or question me about any of the specifics her first worry was the wellbeing of her would be killers. Really she is too pure, so much so that she must be protected at all costs.

"They were taken to Tohsaka Tower, an organization founded by one of my father lover's and my sensei. She asked me to take you there this weekend as we do not want you to be taken advantage anymore." I said ignoring the fact that Rin would experiment the hell out of her. Nothing lethal or even hurtful obviously as, despite being a magus, she had morals.

"What sort of place is the Tohsaka Tower?" she asked curiously. Well, I expected her to be much more panicked when she discovered that she was betrayed by those that she believed to be her allies. Well for an excommunicated nun (still can't believe that she was excommunicated even though she is such an innocent and caring soul; politics and believe should never get mixed, never) she must be used to be betrayed like that. At least on Tohsaka Tower, she will not have this problem.

"Tohsaka Tower is an institute of teaching and research in all matters supernatural. We have researchers in basically all manners of magic with allies in many different factions, families, and species, such as the Baels, Phoenixes, Yokais, Greek and Norse pantheons and some heroes descendants. We pride ourselves in that our objective is the search of the understanding of what the supernatural is and what can be achieved with it not limiting it exclusively to fights but also technology, healthcare, and applications in day-to-day life." She does not seem to understand what I am saying here, huh "You can think of us as researchers that try to make the world a better place."

"But you said that you attacked those fallen, how could an organization trying to help people be killing like that?" She asked like she could not associate an organization such as ours doing something like this.

"That is because I and some others are part of Judgment as well. Well, I am sort of not part as I do help them once in a while but am not in their payroll or am officially part because for that you must either be a researcher, student or a contracted personnel. In my case, there was never a need to put me on contract so I don't have it. Judgment is a subdivision that main focus is the elimination of strays and any threat to the peace we are having now because if the peace ends we would be dragged into the conflict and any and all research would be stopped. Another thing that should be mentioned is that all members have the capacity of facing high-class enemies as sometimes we do face devils that are 'pushy' in their recruitment of not only our members but also regular humans so we intervene and stop them before damage is made whenever we can." Wow, I need a glass of water, that was a lot of talking.

"So… I am going to his Tohsaka Tower this weekend right?"

"Yes, I will take you there personally." I said in a defacto way.

"OK, I need some time to process everything." She said looking troubles about what she should do.

"Fine by me. I am going now but if you want to talk to someone ta ask questions you can ask Taiga-san over there when she wakes up. She is our guardian, even though I take care of her more than the other way around." I chuckled a little at that.

"Ok, bye-bye Cas-kun" she says but I can see that the smile on her face is strained at best. Later I must check to see how she is doing.

* * *

School

I am now in the student council room. Why you ask, simple. I got here late and lost the first class two days in a row (I guess Sona forgot that the first time was partially her fault). Now she has been lecturing me for about 10 minutes about why I should follow the rules while I am singing 'blue bird' (the third opening from Naruto Shippuden). Talk whatever you want but a few of those openings are catchy.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" she said when she noticed my faraway look.

"Yes, of course." Lying is one of the first lessons that Rin's taught me. It was to make sure that I did not let the secrets of the supernatural to the outside word but damn if it wasn't useful... even though I never got to lie to her successfully as she AWAYS found out in a question of instants.

"*sigh* Well it is not like we will get anything out of you anyway. Before I liberate you I have one last question." she said in an exasperate and tired tone.

"Shoot." I said thanking the big guy up there for the small favors. And if thanking him give Sona a migraine it is just a bonus.

"Where were you last night around 11 PM?"

Oh, so she is doubting me. This is bad news because if they are my movements will be getting more limited, but good because these 'owners of the town' seem to have finally started to take actual actions that go beyond the occasional stray-hunts.

"I was home having a nice dinner with Emilly, Taiga, and some friends." It is best to tell half-trues as if they research and found out that I hide the information they may discover my involvement and could start trying to recruit me or worst expulsion and I need to return to the institute. No more training or missions for this last year has been the greatest blessing of my life so far and I intend on keeping far from hell on earth, it is best living beside devils than demons... even though I do miss the girls every once in a while, but we talk whenever we want and see each other regularly so it is not that bad.

"Thank you very much for the intel. You may leave and go back to class."

Ah liberty, sweet liberty. Finally, I am free from this room that gives me the chills. Even through Tsubaki does make an excellent tea but her staring at me is kind of disturbing.

"One more thing."

Shit.

I can almost feel her smirk on my back as I am already at the door.

"Yes, Shitori-sempai?"

"As punishment for your lateness, you will be accompanying Tsubaki here while she is showing the school for a transfer student. He will be in your class and called to warn that he will be getting here late as he needs to take care of some business."

I knew it, this is punishment. Not only do I have to be with some dude that I never seen and show the school to him I also have to do it with the staring girl. She never talks to me and just stares, and when I try to talk to her she faces the other way and does not answer me back. Really what is going on in her head?

* * *

Tsubaki P.O.V.

YES!

THANK YOU, MASTER!

Now I can spend a lot of time with him. This time I will manage to talk to him properly. I must stop this shyness and just talk to him.

Let's try right now. It is not such a big deal, just say 'I will be in your care' and that is it. Wait and if he thinks I am pushy or worst he misunderstands the meaning. No, no, no there is only one meaning to this sentence. If there was another it would be… a proposal? Wait wait wait Tsubaki Shinra. It is too early! We need first to go on some dates before getting to this step. A date with him huh. It could be the beach or the mountains to watch the stars. Just imagining lying on the ground with him watching the stars and he suddenly turning over to look me in the eyes and saying 'you are the most beautiful of the stars for me' kyaaa. And then he would propose to me and the marriage would be in a...

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Like I said it is kind of creepy. I mean she turned to me, seemed like she would talk and then closed her mouth and just stares.

Well, I better accept. It is not like I can challenge Sona here as she basically rules the school and whatever she says is decided. If someone tells me that the director Sasori and vice-director Kankuro are just puppets I would believe it.

"Fine by me. See you later Shitori-sempai, Shinra-sempai." I give a respectful bow to them and left before they can say anything else.

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

Interesting, really interesting. So, he got some old friends visiting yesterday. The possibility of them being members of Tohsaka Tower and possible Judgment is quite high. If it is true then Castiel may be truly involved in the mystical side of the word.

"What do you think Tsubaki?"

No answer.

"Tsubaki?"

Again nothing.

"Tsubaki are you listening to me or what?"

"Hu, what? Yes, yes I am listening. By the way were is Emiya-san?" she says while looking all around us. Really she needs to either go out with him already or something because this distracting effect he has on her is too annoying.

"*sigh* He left already a minute ago. You just stayed frozen there and did not even said goodbye." I said tiredly. Really she is way too shy and maiden-in-love with him.

"Sona what do you think I must do? I want to talk to him but every time I try I get sidetracked and too embarrassed to talk and just stare at him. He must think I am weird. What do I do?" she asked me pleadingly. Honestly, why does she think that I, one that has the same no experience with the opposite gender than her, would really know what to do? Well in case of doubt say the obvious and hope for the best.

"You could try to exchange contact numbers so as to speak with him via cellphone. Maybe with this, you can talk to him normally." I said.

"... That is an excellent idea Sona. I will make sure to get his number later today." She said full of confidence. 9 out of 10 it will fail but…

"Do your best." I could only encourage her. It is her first love, at first sight for what she said, and even though it has been more than a year since it started she still did not talk to him up until now. Good luck my friend.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

As the classes have been going on I can't stop thinking about my impending doom as I look at the window. Ah, the birds are so free. No worries, no responsibilities, no survival training. If I am to be reincarnated in my next life I want to be a bird.

"Attention everyone. We have an announcement to make." After the teacher said that everyone stopped talking and looked at her. "We will be having a transfer student. He comes from a small city called Morioh and is new on the city so be gentle with him alright?"

As the room was silent the teacher said:

"You may enter now, hyyyyy" the teacher jumped a little when she saw the new student. To be fair most of the class did as well. The man that entered was fairly tall with a pair of symmetric cars that ran down the sides of his face from his temples, around his eyes and down to his jawline. His face was hard and angular, a light scowl pulled at his lips and his dark brown eyes narrowed in slight focus as he looked around the room. His hair was in two tones, black and done in a big pompadour on top and gray and slicked back on the sides on top of his hunched over stance that made him look like the poster child of the delinquent united magazine. His body was broad and muscular and looked like he spent most of his time in street fighting.

"I ain' happy to be here with you but whatever. My name is Higashikata Okuyasu. I came from Morioh city and want nothing to do with this school. Stay out of my way and we will get along just fine." He said it with a smirk. It is surprising that his presence alone can shut the whole class into silence. Well, at least classes will not be so boring from now on.

* * *

 **Omake**

Kuroko and her family

Kuroko was approaching her mother's room after talking with Rin. She could feel a dark presence coming from the said room, which normally would mean something to kill but in this case, means her mother is pissed.

Very pissed.

KNOCK KNOCK

She knocked on the door before entering. She then heard her mother saying

"You can come in."

Kuroko then entered the room and looked around. It was a plain room, just a wooden table, chairs, a bed for her parents, a TV and no decorations except a cabinet full of drinks that her father bought. Her mother was sitting on one said chair facing Kuroko direction.

Her mother name was Bazett Fraga and she was an attractive woman that looked around mid-twenties. She had short magenta hair, brown-red eyes, a beautiful face with a mole below her left eye and a voluptuous figure.

"Kuroko I heard of what you did. I do not approve your decision this time around." Her mother said with a serious face.

Kuroko lowered her head. She had a feeling her mother would not approve of the decision of attacking some fallen that she did not know if they are truly strays or in an official mission. If it was the later it could turn out a disaster.

"How could you do such a thing without a payment!?" was what Bazett said. Kuroko could not properly process what her mother meant by that. "You know our family is full of debt and we need the money, if we have it we can possibly buy a new mattress that does not stink of booze your father dropped in it." Her mother said with an absolutely straight face.

Was that the reason for her other anger? Seriously?

"As punishment, you will not go see Castiel until you manage to produce a proper **Fragarach** and use it properly." Her mother said. **Fragarach** is the name of a noble phantasm that is produced in her mother's family for generations, which Kuroko fails to get done right everytime.

"But mom, that could take years. I could not go that long without recharging my Castiel battery even if I wanted to." Kuroko pleaded using a secret technique that always got some result when used against her mother.

 **Secret technique: puppy dog eyes.**

Looking at her daughter's eyes Bazett will started to waiver. No mother could resist her baby girl puppy eyes.

Then an idea passed her mind, one that could help Kuroko in learning that she should not do this kind of thing.

"*sigh* Fine, what you will do then is simple. You must complete enough hunts to compensate this time around." Kuroko smiled hearing that. It was all good for her as she would have to go on missions anyway. "And until you complete enough missions you are not to go see Castiel." That Kuroko could understand. It was far from the ideal of living with him and being glued to him as she wanted, but at least she had a foreseeable future to look forward to.

"Understood Okaa-sama."

"And another thing. You will be having survival training without the use of teleportation and it will take 5 hours longer than normal."

Kuroko suddenly had a vision, a vision of the world shattering around her and falling into despair. Survival training is just that bad.

But if anyone were to ask her if she thinks it was worth it, she'd say yes. She at least got confirmation that he would go out with her after she was 14... even if her chances of getting there were not optimistic if she needed to go through survival training.


	7. Chapter 6

"W-w-well mister Okuyasu, you may sit there in the back at that available chair beside Castiel-kun." I swear the teacher seamed one step away from peeing on her panties.

"Fine, whatever." Wow, even the way he talks and walks reminds me of a Yankee. Interesting.

After he sits down he starts frowning at the teacher seemingly new interest in the board to the point of not even looking at us and especially toward this area... smooth.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Castiel." Let's try to be nice. I mean he still did not annoy me in any way so why not.

"…" No response.

"…."

"…"

"…hey did you listen to me or what?" I am kind of getting annoyed with him. Why is he acting all high and mighty?

"Yeah, yeah I hear you. Shithead." Okuyasu says dismissively.

My brows are likely twitching right now.

"Sorry I think I did not hear you. Can you repeat yourself shitty hair?" I mean come on, who has a pompadour in this day and age. I mean it looks good and all but I will not tell him that, he will not have the satisfaction.

"What did you call my hair, shithead? I dare you to repeat it!" he said standing up trying to look threatening.

Not like it would work for me. I saw worst and had to call some of them sensei after all.

I stood up as well and said.

"I said your hair is shitty. Got a problem with that, huh?"

"You are going down." He clenched his fists

"SSSTTTTTOOOOOOOPPPPP!" The teacher screams for us to stop. When I looked around I realized that most of the class is backing out and no one is even remotely close to us. The teacher seems desperate and about ready to run away.

"After class, on the abandoned church downtown." I challenge him. Don't know why but I feel I must fight it out with him.

"I will be there. I will make you eat your words about my hair." He says and then sits down.

I to sit down and we wait for the continuation of the class, not that it seems like there will be much of any considering that the teacher seems close to be needing to go home change his pants. If he was any worse he'd be peeing and shitting himself NOT on the figurative sense.

Well, at least classes can't get much worst.

* * *

LATER THAT DAY

I was wrong, so very wrong.

"Oh, so this is the rooftop. Seems like a cool place." Why, why does it must be me to show this idiot around the school?

"…" Oh right, it is not just me. It is miss stare over there as well.

Right after the class was over and was lunchtime I thought I could go to some quiet spot and just enjoy a good lunch, maybe even be with Emilly and go eat together.

When I was going to invite her what do I found, Tsubaki calling for me to help show Okuyasu around the school. At least I got to hear her voice for once. Quite pretty and melodious, shame that she seems to not like talking to me very much.

* * *

Tsubaki P.O.V.

I DID IT. I managed to talk to him today. I am so happy that I could even start dancing right now. No, bad Tsubaki. You should be showing Okuyasu-kun the school as a proper member of the student council... together with Castiel-kun, kyaaa. I am so bold even calling him on a first name basis just like that. I wonder if he thinks we are going too fast. W-w-w-well we can take our time. I mean, it is not like I lo-lo-lo.. what did I just thought? No no no no no. It is simply too fast. We first must go on a proper date before I can say I lo-lo-lo… enjoy his presence very much, yes it is that. But talking about dating, what should I wear on our first date? Maybe…

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

See, after she talked to me just a bit on a totally formal tone she just got quiet and kept staring at me. She must truly hate me.

Well that in and of itself is not that bad. The problem is that Okuyasu keeps glaring at me every once in a while and seems that he wants to fight with me right now.

"Would you stop looking at me like that? Do you want to kiss me or something?" I said turning to him. Strangely enough, after I said that Tsubaki flinched.

"What did you just said?" he said after he jumped back.

"If you do not want to kiss me stop glaring me that much. We will see each other latter to settle this anyway right?" I said looking him right in the eyes. BTW if he ever had such thought I bet that Yuno would find some way to kill him, I may love her but I fear her just as much.

"On the abandoned church, I know. Don't you dare run away shitface"

"I'd never do that shity-hair."

After saying that we started walking in silence beside one another.

Wait there is something missing here. Let's see:

Myself – check

Okuyasu – check

His actual kind of cool but I will never admit hair – check

Tsubaki - … where is she?

* * *

Tsubaki P.O.V.

And then our three children will be named …

"Would you stop looking at me like that?"

Wha, did I made him angry at me? I know I have difficulty to speak to him but, but, but… SONA-SAMA what do I do? He hates me and will never want to see me again. He will run away from me and no matter what I do he will never look at me like I look at him.

'Do you want to kiss me or something?'

YES! Wait, wait Tsubaki Shinra I must have heard him wrong here. I mean it is not like him to do this. Repeat the scene in your head again to see how it was.

You were walking down the hall and he turned to you strangely wet and without a shirt, showing off his abs and beautiful smile and with roses surrounding him he says:

'Tsubaki, would you give me the honor of kissing me?' and smiles.

KKKKYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHH. YES, YES, Yes a hundred times YES. If I am dreaming do not wake me up. I can't even imagine how it can get any better.

'We will see each other later to settle this anyway right?' Ah, this is going too quickly. He wants to settle his relationship with me. Does that mean he wants to do THAT? I mean I am not against it but isn't this too fast? Wait, unless he wants me so much that he cannot stop himself anymore. What do I do? I am not with my good panties just regular boring ones. I need to go and buy them before anything happens.

"I am going out to get something, show him the rest of the school, Emyia-kun." I dashed to get out of here. I have a store to go as I need to get ready. Why did I not take Serafall-sama advice about underwear earlier?

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

What just happened? Did she just leave me here to deal with Okuyasu while she ran away?

"Hey, is it just me or did she ran away?" Okuyasu asked me. I can only nod my head. "Well, what are we gonna do now? Do you want to show me around here or just go to the church right now? I doubt it will be a problem as the teacher seems to want us to be as far away as humanly possible."

"You know what, let's go." I declared.

As we arrived at the church I noticed that it is fixed for the most part. It was probably Sona as she is more attentive to this kind of things and the destruction of the church would cause too much-unwanted attention.

"How we gonna do this? I just want to know as to have some ground rules." I said

"Just punch one another and the first to fall loose, that'd be you by the way." He said with a cocky smirk on his face

All right, but first things first. Let's deactivate any and all magical enhancements and activate that mystic code Rin made that makes the physique of someone be on human levels independent of how much you surpassed it. If I am to fight a regular human, I do not want to make it so that I won because of something unfair.

* * *

sometime later

Fuck it hurts. For how long were we punching each other now? The sun is setting and I can barely look at it now. We just keep punching. I do not go down and he does not either. I hit him on the face and him on my guts, I use the Snake style that Kuzuki-sensei taught me and he uses a fusion of many styles like Muay Thay, Karate, Jujitsu and Chinese Kempo soft style as to counter me. My vision is getting blurry; it must be from repetitive hits on the head. Why can't he fall down already?

* * *

Okuyasu P.O.V.

My day is going shittier by the second. I started off fine, presented to class with a cool entrance and even made my hair in my favorite style. Then this kid, Cas something, started talking to me and I tried acting cool. I mean you got to act like you are the top dog or the others will take advantage of you, or at least it was what Sakaki sensei taught me.

Then he offended my hair. I took one hour making it just right and some prick comes along and calls it shitty? No, he gotta pay.

One thing led to another and now I am here, in a damn abandoned church getting more hits on the head than in my usual training with my masters. He started using this strange style and I needed to start using my own moves or I'd be the one in the ground. I am NOT going down first.

Oh shit, another hit on the back of my head, at least he is not aiming to the vitals as he seems to always aim for close but not deadly strikes. How the hell he keeps hitting me on those weak spots?Well, at least I still got to make a retaliation Kao Loy right on his face. Haha, right what I wanted. But why am I looking to the sky? OH no. Well shit, it seems I lo… nope it was a draw.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Shit that knee in the face was just unfair. I probably broke a nose there. I am all bloody and I just know that people would think I am some kind of tug or some shit like that if they saw me like this.

"Hahahahahaha. That was the best fight I had in quite some time." He said griming like a child, even have some tooth's missing just like one.

"Ha, that is right. For me as well." I couldn't stop smiling as well. I have not had a good fight in quite a while. The one I had with those fallen was less fighting for survival than making sure the opponents didn't die on me. With Okuyasu however, even if I did not use my mystic abilities I still got to enjoy the thrill of a battle.

"Hey!"

"What is it?" I got curious, he suddenly got this serious face and was glaring at me.

"Sorry for offending you earlier. I was stressed out. New city and no friends and all that. I decided to follow my master advice and well, here we are." He said without seeming to know if he should laugh or cry.

"No problem. Honestly, you are the better challenge I had in weeks. Since I left my masters' side I can feel my body again but things just got boring after a while." I said with a sweat droop on my face… or was it a blood drop? Honestly, It is all a mess on my face here, my nose is a mess and cuts through it all. Still best fight than those fallen.

"Heh, seems like your masters were tough on you."

"You got no idea. Kuzuki-sensei trained me in elasticity by making me stretch n some crazy equipment that stopped at the point of breaking and leaving me there until the next day or when he remembers to let me out."

"That is nothing. Akisame-shishou used to tie some ropes over me while sitting on a tire connected to it and forced me to run throughout the town and whenever I went in a speed that did not make a comfortable wind he would whip me on the back." I shudder to hear this.

"Scary, but I will not lose. When I was 8 my sensei throw me on a special survival training that included living in the woods alone for a weak being hunted by a giant lion." Berserker was using a coat made of lion fur while hunting me with Illiya-chan help so I am not totally lying.

"A year ago my masters made me row a boat for them from the coast until an island for training that was over 80km of distance. All in one day."

"Rin-sensei made me learn self-reinforcement and while practicing I broke more veins and bones that I can remember"

"…Did you just said reinforcement?" he asks looking at me strangely.

Shit, I spoke too much. Gotta hypnotize him to make him forget this last bit. Strange why is it not working.

A tick mark appears on his forehead. "Would you stop trying to hypnotize me already. It just gives me a headache and nothing more."

"Wait, you know about the supernatural?" I asked with a big doubt in my head.

"Yeah, I do. Not anything impressive, mostly just that it exists and that I must try my best to stay the fuck away from it" Okuyasu said while trying to shrug his shoulders, but considering that the left one is probably fractured he just ended up felling a spike of pain.

"… and you are not panicking or trying to run away... why?"

"For what I see you are not a bad dude. Annoying and with bad manners but not bad." He said with an exchange conviction on his voice.

"And how can you know that? For all you know I may be a psycho killer or something along those lines." When he started to give me a strange look I started to correct myself. "Not that I am, mind you. I am just a teenager that was born into this sort of world. But my question remains, Why do you trust me?"

"Since I was 9 my masters taught me how to fight. While growing they taught me that during a good fight you can understand the opponent better than any talk ever could. Your style is deadly. It aims for the joints and vital spots all the time and is centered around it but you always deviated the point of contact so as to not really give any lasting damage. I can see that you are deadly and probably killed before but not without reason or just because you are annoyed by someone else."

"So… it just means I was not after your life. It can mean I am a good guy or just don't want to clean the body afterworlds."

"Yeah, it may be as you say. But my instinct says otherwise and I trust it. Got that you dumb shit." He says with a confident voice and griming

Yep, he is an honest idiot. A brash but honest idiot.

"Fine, I get it." I said like I am giving up on this discussion.

"Hey, can you keep a secret?" with a shift from the earlier mood he asks me with a serious face.

*Gulp*

"I don't know what you want to tell me, but if you want it to be a secret I will keep quiet."

"I got involved in this supernatural crap because of I got something called a sacred gear. Have you heard of those?"

"Seriously, you got one of those?" well, that is surprising. Not the sacred gear bit as I discovered it some time ago but that he chose to reveal to me it.

"Yeah, when I was little my house was attacked by some devil from the Old-Maou faction that discovered my gear. He wanted me as part of his peerage, whatever that might be. My parents were killed but luckily one of my future masters noticed what was going on and managed to get me away from there. He and my other masters later took me in and trained me so as to protect myself." He told me quite a lot. It must be quite a weight on his shoulders, being born in a normal happy family and suddenly lose them like that and later trained to fight, and all because of something he got no control over.

"That is rough. I was born into this world and never really got a normal life. My mother disappeared after I was born and my dad was a freelancer/hero of justice that died when I was 5. I was trained since I was 6 but not just in martial arts but also basic magecraft, Runecraft, swordplay, and taming wild animals. I am here in Kuoh just so that they cannot give me anymore hell."

"Hahahaha." He started laughing his ass off. "Well shit. We are more alike than I thought. Hey about my sacred gear, it's technical name is _**the hands of the divine**_ but the name is just too big so I just call it _**The Hand**_. It's a pair of gloves with an interesting effect on each one." He turned to me with tears in his eyes from the earlier laugh.

"And what effect would that be, oh Okuyasu-sama" my voice dripping sarcasm.

If he noticed, he did not seem to care. "The right one I can't really control all that well but the left one recovers thing to how they were before. Like this." He stretched his left arm and after he touched me I fell some strange energy go through me and suddenly I do not feel any pain anymore. I stood up and even started giving little jumps and checking my body. Full and instantaneous heal. No wonder some devil tried to forcefully reincarnate him.

"Well, that is convenient. You can just touch your left hand to someone or yourself and they can go right bake to fight if they are not dead. That is OP as fuck." I said surprised by these effects. This is too strong.

"Not quite, I can only heal one person once a day. That means if I healed you now I can heal anyone else but you for 24 hours. I also can't heal myself. It is quite limited in those aspects" he said but was still full of pride of his power. Who wouldn't? He can heal anyone of anything, except death.

"Wait for just a second, I will call home and ask someone to come here to help you get better."

* * *

We continued talking. He was going on and on about his training and I was doing the same. We reached a mutual respect for each other sufferings through this years.

I then heard a sound and when I turned I saw a blond girl approaching.

"Asia, over here."

Asia came running as soon as I explained that there was an injured person in the abandoned church that needed her help.

"Castiel-san who is it that is wounded?" she said all flustered and dripping sweat. She must have run at her max speed to get here as fast as possible, such an angel.

"Over there." I said pointing at Okuyasu. Hey why I his face even redder now than when it was covered in blood.

* * *

Okuyasu P.O.V.

An angel is in front of me now. That is the only explanation that I can give.

Long blond hair, petite body, innocent face and such a gentle aura covering herself. She must be what an angel looks like. No, she is even better than any angel can be like.

She approached me even though I am all dirty and smell like crap she does not care. She started using some healing whatever in me and I feel all fuzzy inside.

"It is good that you are all right now. But please do not get injured like that again. I do not want to see anyone hurt. Will you promise me to try and not get injured like that again." Ah, what a heavenly voice. She is even worried about me even though she does not know me and this is the first time we met.

"Y-y-yeah I will do it. I swear I will try and not get injured again." I declared from the bottom of my heart. I will not make such a cute angel sad. "C-can you tell me your name?"

"It is Asia, Asia Argento." She smiled at me even more. She is so pure and beautiful. I must protect this smile. "And what is your name?" she asks tilting her head slightly to the side.

"It is Okuyasu, Higashikata Okuyasu."

"I know it may sound strange but I think you are a good person, so would you like to be my friend? I just got into this town and never really had many friends before, so would you be my friend?" Asia-chan asked

"YES!" She jumped back from my sudden yell. Shit " I mean, I'd be glad to be your friend, Asia-chan." I want to protect this angel for all eternity. I always trusted my instincts and guts and both are telling me that she is worth doing it.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, would you look at that. They are actually getting along. They make a cute couple and he does not seem like a bad dude, but let's watch them for now and if he ever makes this pure girl sad punch him so hard that even Berserker-sansei would think I overreacted. Kukukuku.

* * *

 **Omake**

Why Kuroko's family has cash problems

On a 'gentlemen's club' on Vegas a show was about to start.

"Gentlemen give your warm welcome to Candi, with an i." an announcer said. A girl then entered the stage and started to dance sexually on it, taking off piece by piece of her clothes. All men were going crazy, throwing money and saying 'stip, strip, strip'.

All like any other day.

CRASH

Until the door of the club was punched open so strong that it went flying.

Everyone was scared shitless, but the worst one there was a man with blue hair and red eyes as he saw a woman in a suit enter the establishment.

"Lancer, why are you here?" Bazzet asked her husband.

"I-I was just enjoying a bit after a hard mission." Lancer explained himself. He would never actually betray her but looking is not cheating as long as he is concerned.

"Your mission ended a week ago! And worst the bill of what you spent already got home this morning." Baxxet said approaching Lancer while releasing a killing intent that even his Gae Bolg would be hardpressed to match.

Without waiting for more explanations Bazzet started to run after Lancer as he tried to run, ignoring all obstacles on her way of teaching this bastard, that she loved most times, a much-needed lesson.

... a week later the bill of all the things destroyed by the couple on that club was sent their way, and so their debt rised even more.


	8. Chapter 7

Castiel P.O.V.

I want to punch myself from a few hours ago.

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

I mean really, really punch myself.

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

And then punch this loud bastard. Then punch him again.

How did things turn like this?

* * *

Four hours ago

"Hey, Okuyasu. Are you really ok now?" I asked this somehow new friend of mine.

"Yeah, I am great. Look." He started trying to make some simple stretches, main word being trying because, as soon as he tried he started, he began to twitch and had a pained look on his face. I was just as bad before, but damn if _**The Hand**_ isn't useful.

"*sigh* Come on. You are going with us."

"Wha- no, no there is no need. I can go back just fine to my home alone." He told while shaking his head and trying to not go.

"Shut it. I will be making dinner and Asia will continue her treatment of you there. And don't even think of going back to your house until you can at least move properly, less you get attacked by some stray-devil. Honestly, the security of this city sucks for someplace that houses two devil heiresses."

"…" he is just blushing. Oh, I see. He stopped listening when I said he could continue the treatment with Asia-chan. Can't blame the dude, she is adorable, cute and just so, so, so... her. It is in these moments that I am happy I am not some overly dense dude (even if I can't say I am all that sensitive either).

"Let's go." I just shrugged off and took off taking him and Asia back home.

* * *

The dinner was fine, he kept talking to Asia-chan and they laughed together. Emilly went out with Taiga-san to eat outside and party a bit. No need to worry as they are both plenty strong (Taiga did get lessons with Saber after getting in this world after all) and by tomorrow morning they will be in their rooms, not wanting to get out of bed at all.

"So, Okuyasu."

"…. And then I was all like…"

"Hey, are you listening to me here?"

"…and he was all like 'how can you do that?' and I was like…"

A tick mark may have appeared on my forehead just now. I know that talking to a pretty girl does have this sort of effect, but really can't he listen to what I am saying from right here?

"HEY!" I screamed in his ears just to see if it had some effect. Boy, it is hard to get in the middle of a clueless girl and a boy with a crush.

"What? Can't you see that I am telling Asia-chan about one of my training sessions with my masters?" he asked with not so concealed annoyance.

"As I was trying to say, it is getting late. Are you in condition to go home now or would you like to crash here?" I mean it is past midnight so who knows. The fight took a while and his treatment lasted over two hours… even though they spent most of the time talking.

"Would you really not mind if I crashed here? Wouldn't it be a bother?" Okuyasu asked with some concern in his voice.

"Don't worry Okuyasu-san. Castiel-kun is a good person and would not mind at all, right?" Asia told as if natural. She is either way too trusting or gullible to really think like that this fast.

"Yeah, yeah no worries. I have a spare room beside my own and this home is quite spacious so why not?" Really, magic is amazing. Thanks to some bounded field made on the Tohsaka Tower I turned a regular 2 rooms one-bathroom house in almost a mansion, magic for the win.

"Then yeah, why not. As it is already pass… shit, it is midnight. Thanks for the offer, if it wasn't that I'd have to sleep on the street." Okuyasu said with a thankful face. "What, with my landlord being all strict with the hours and all that. Barely even let me rent the place and loves to give me the stink eye just because of my great fashion sense." He told with a mix of exasperation with the landlord and pride for himself.

"Why would he give you the stink eye, Okuyasu-san? Is it just because of your appearance?" Asia asked like it did not make any sort of sense.

"Yeah, many judge me just because of how I look." he admitted dejectedly.

"That is so wrong. You are a good and kind person." Okuyasu was practically glowing when he heard she say this. "It is wrong to judge anyone by their looks. Next time someone that has the same style as you tell me to go with him that I will have a good time I will go, they may be good people just like you." and with that, the glowing was replaced with pure frighten.

You know what, let's leave him to take care of this. I will not get involved. Let's watch the show of him trying to explain why she should not go out and do this, kukukuku.

* * *

Now, back to present, don't get me wrong. I lived with many different persons while growing up. There was Saber that acted dignified but would eat my hand if I tried to take the dishes out before she was full. Rin and her tsundere antics that usually ended with ample use of Gram, many times against Luvia that responded in kind (I lost count of how many times I needed to escape the room I was before I ended up like a new form of art on the walls). There were Junichiro and his ideas of training. Yuno, running after me with MANY, MANY knives whenever I 'forgot' a 'special date' that I did not even know at the time that it was special. Lancer and Bazet with their 'tuition fees' for my teaching that, oddly enough, always happened to be when they needed to buy something.

Like I said, I lived with many peculiar persons. But

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

How could

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

He be

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SO FUCKING LOUD!

I can't in good consciousness understand how someone can be so loud. The walls were enchanted to isolate sound to a bare minimum. But he somehow can be loud enough to not let me get a wink of sleep.

What, did he managed to enter in contact with his inner animal and it just so happened to be a chainsaw or something like that?

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRREEEEE!

You know what? I am leaving, I will teleport the hell away from here and sleep in the woods or something.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Shit, I can't teleport from the house. Almost forgot that I added bounded fields to prevent that (not like Kuroko can't just ignore it anyway, her sacred gear is BS in my opinion).

*Sigh* Let's go outside and teleport than.

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

"Kaichou we have a situation." The voice of Momo came right when I was about to fall asleep.

"It is best to be good Momo. I was just about to go to sleep." I said trying to restrain the yawn that was trying to get out.

"It is about Castiel-kun."

Well, that works to end my sleepiness.

"What about him?"

"As I was following your command of investigating and if need be, protect Okuyasu after Fuku-Taichou went out to 'correct a grave mistake'," I can already feel a headache on the way. Since when does Tsubaki just leave an assignment from me, and to buy lingerie or something along those lines at that? Honestly, whenever Castiel is involved she becomes a mess. "When I found them, Okuyasu and Castiel were returning home with some new individual." Well, that can either mean nothing or 'in less savory terms' means that shit hit the fan. What with the fact we still do not know who killed those fallen who knows what will happen next?

"I understand. But what do you mean that the situation has a relationship with Castiel-kun?"

"It is because according to my familiar, that I made watch Castiel's door, he just got outside and used a teleporting circle to teleport somewhere."

"!" That, that can be a disaster.

That means that we had an unidentified magician here, at Kuoh, this entire time. Granted we knew he had some relationship with that new organization but we had found no trace of any sort of energy from him. Does that mean he has some item that masks his presence or does he have some other trick? And what is his objective by coming here? I will apologize to Tsubaki later but this must be addressed with all seriousness. If he is a spy or a potential enemy we must know.

"Momo, keep monitoring the house but don't approach or intercept them in any way shape or form. Until we get a clear picture of what is happening we must stay on our toes."

"Understood Kaichou."

After the communication ended I informed the rest of my peerage and tried to enter in contact with Rias, focus on try because she was sleeping and did not wake up at all. The reactions were varied but the worst was definitely Tsubaki as, since some time now, she has been completely smitten by him. Knowing that he may be an enemy is not easy.

Tomorrow I will call him to the student council room, there are many protection and offensive bounded fields set there and in case he turns hostile it is the best chance of defeating or at least make sure that we will stay alive that is for now.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Today is the worst. I needed to run away from my house to the middle of the woods just to get some sleep. When I got there I found a good spot, no animals to annoy me, a good breeze and a calming blue sky. All was good. That is until I tried to fall asleep and discover that my blood must be delicious to insects because the sheer amount of gnats must have been against the law of the universe.

After I managed to kill all those pests, you are welcome universe, I barely got 4 hours of sleep before I needed to go back home to get breakfast ready. When I woke Emilly up she throws a light spear at me that accidentally hit my room and, even though it did not destroy it fully, managed to burn my computer.

And, as the cherry on the cake, Okuyasu was perfectly fine and was telling me how good he felt because he had not slept so soundly in a good while.

Now here I am, walking with Emilly by my side, she was singing the last Izayoi song without a shred of shame or embarrassment for ruining my computer, and Okuyasu on the other side talking on and on about how great his night was, how great Asia is and whatever else passes throw his mind.

"Hey, Emilly." I call out to her.

"Yeah, what is it Castiel?"

"Where were you exactly yesterday? You came back quite late yesterday."

"Oh, that." She turned to me as well and told me "There was a show of Izayoi Miku yesterday and I got a prize ticket from your package of chips. Congrats, by the way, you won the great prize yesterday." She said as if it was normal.

With a vein almost popping in my forehead I asked.

"And you ate my chips even though you had yours… why?"

"Because stolen food is yummier." She smiled in such a way that seemed that what she did make perfect sense.

"… next time I go on a date with Yuno-chan I will tell her I was thinking of inviting her to go with me on the show but you took the tickets." I said trying SO HARD to not laugh at her reaction. I mean as soon as the world's got out of my mouth she fell on her ass and almost started crying and begged me so much to not do that. Kukuku serves you right.

"Hey, Cas." Okuyasu suddenly spoke up.

"Yes, what is it Okuyasu?"

"Who is this Yuno that you are talking about? Is she your girlfriend or something along those lines?"

"Yuno is one of my childhood friends and is one my girlfriend, I mean I have more than one… but please don't tell it to the guys at school. If god forbid, Issei or the other members of that trio of perverts know of this they may start to try and recruit me or make all sorts of bad rumors about me just out of spite."

Okuyasu got a stupefied face. I get it, suddenly hear a friend is a Casanova or something like that is surprising.

"Wow, did not see that one coming from you. How many are you dating right now?"

"There is Yuno-chan, Seryu-chan and Yuzuru and Kaguya. You will probably meet most of them if you accept my next proposition."

"Uh, what proposition?" he asks

"Would you be interested in joining us from Tohsaka Tower?"

"Don't know man. If I join, will I be forced to do anything in special?"

"Not really. We will study your sacred gear and try to give you the best training possible for you to learn how to use it to the fullest. Also, you can learn magic and all different forms of mystical arts such as, but not limited to, chakra, senjutsu, youjutsu, Ki, magecraft, Runecraft, Norse magic and Touki. There are other types we know but they depend heavily on what type of creature you are."

"Hum, I get it but is there something else."

"Well, we will also provide you with protection in case you are attacked and needs help or rescue."

"I don't know, man; I am the lone wolf type. There is no way I will enter some organi…"

"Asia is part of the Tohsaka Tower."

"I want to be part of it, where do I sign?"

Wow, this guy is an open book. The only way he could be easier to understand was if he came with an instruction manual… a 5 pages one at that.

"You can come with us this weekend. I will need to take Asia there anyway so you may tag along."

"Thanks. Now let's go or we will be late." Okuyasu reminded me, shit if I take any longer I won't be there in time.

"Yeah let's… hey, were is Emilly?"

We ended up needing to turn back as she was in fetal position with no light in her eyes saying how her life was over. Well at least if we take her now we won't be late.

* * *

Yes. I did it. I am not late again. New rumors will spread, no doubt thanks to me bringing Emily in a princess carry so as to get here in time as she refused to move because according to her "I am a dead person, dead should not walk".

At least now everything is fine. I took Emily to Kiba's class and went to my own right after. There is Okuyasu sitting beside my spot and all other students trying their hardest to avoid looking at his general direction. *sigh* At least the classes are starting and nothing is going to happen now.

DING DONG

 _The students Castiel Emyia and Emily Fugimura please go to the student council room. Repeat the students Castiel Emyia and Emily Fugimura please go to the student council room_

DING DONG

Fuck.

Why are they calling me and Emily? Did they saw something from yesterday that tipped them about who we are?

As I approached the student council room I sensed two things, first Emily got there first and second, there are more than just the members of the student council there. The Gremory peerage is also present. Well, fuck they probably figured out that we are not so simple.

KNOCK KNOCK

"You may come inside." Shitori-sempai told from the other side.

After I get inside I noticed the mood of the room is dense. Some are curious, some are cautious, the two leaders are on guard and ready to take action if need be and Issei is glaring daggers at me (not like he doesn't do that every chance he gets but still).

"What did you called me and Emily-chan here Shitori-sempai? And with the members of the ORC (occultism research club) no less."

"First please take a sit". After I sat in one of the couches in the room the first thought in my head was not 'what will happen next' but 'she must have taken a special verb from the school to buy a pice's of heaven to sit in', it was just plain unfair. The chairs on the classes are comfortable and all but these are on another level entirely.

"Now for what we wanted to discuss. It has come to our attention that you are in the know of the supernatural word and considering your proximity with Miss Emily we called her here too. What we would like to know first is what are your intentions for coming here." Sona told in a serious and slightly accusatory tone.

SHIT

I knew it was likely this but knowing that my cover is blown still sucks. I better adopt a personality that demonstrates some superiority to deal with this, devils do respect strength so acting haughty if just a bit makes sense. This is one of the times I am happy that Rin forced me to train in self-hypnosis, a necessary skill to any mage and usefull for this sort of situations.

"We came here to study and to see more of the outside world as normal individuals. A feeling that the heiresses of Gremory and Sitri clan probably can relate too." I said with a slight smirk on my face.

TWICH

Oh, so they do see the irony here. Acting like I am doing something wrong while she is doing exactly the same

"Oh, you seem oddly informed. How come, despite you knowing that this is devil's territory, you decided to come AND not introduce yourself properly or ask permission to live in this city?" Rias asked like she was gloating the fact that her (and Sona) family basically owned the city.

"We never saw the need to inform you." I said as if natural.

"And why is that?" Rias asked while putting her arms crossed under her breasts, the ones that must have been magically enhanced from birth so big they are.

"Simple really. First, you were the ones that invited me here as scholarship student because of my late Kendo performance in some tournaments." At that Sona twitched. "And second because neither one of us is interested in being part of a peerage as we know you would have offered without a doubt." And so, Rias started to show a new interest in the painting of the walls, if the way she was avoiding looking at me or Emily as much as she could is any indication.

"A-anyway. The important fact is that we desire to know what is your current status." Changing the subject, huh, Sona.

"Both of us are unofficial members of the Tohsaka Tower." At that both the girls seemed slightly surprised but not so much. They must have investigated my parents and, if they saw who my father is, it would not be any stretch to imagine my relationship with the Tower. "We are unofficial just in the meaning that we never signed any form of binding contract with the tower itself... we have something of a sensitive status so to say."

"That is an interesting information… So? What do you intend on doing from now on?" Sona asked with an unnerving glare.

"We will keep studying here. Nothing more. If you need help in stray extermination or things like that you just need to ask and give appropriate pay that we will help. For the rest think of us as just two other students." I said with a shrug off my shoulders.

"… If you can promise no aggression and that you will not intervene on any possible adding to the peerages that we may do then no problem may arise." Sona agreed in the end.

"Before you leave." Right, when I was getting out of this chair and get out Rias decided to speak up. "Would you mind having a true spar with Kiba here. He has been fighting you for quite some time and he limits himself to a human level but he always loses. He told me while grumbling sometimes how he would have won had he fought for real... would you mind giving him that?"

"…20,000 yen."

"Wha- why do I still need to pay you?" Kiba said with a glare on his eyes.

"Because you are still not enough to a true spar." THAT got the attention of the others in the room.

"How can you be such an ass sometimes?" Kiba keeps with his infuriated glare at me.

"I am not the one that loves to use his hands on his sword and wants to use it on another man right now, am I?" His face was a distortion of hate and pure embarrassment with my comment. The others mostly took a step back and tried hard not to laugh at the boy… except for Issei that just fell over laughing at his companion.

"… Anyway, let's have this bout after school so as to settle the score." Rias said, trying hard not to explode in laughter at her knight-kun.

"Don't forget the cash." Finally standing up I was about to go out when I noticed the Emily was still sitting on her chair, mostly catatonic from my treat earlier. I just went ahead grabbing her by the scurf of her shirt and set off back to class.


	9. Chapter 8

I spent most of the classes doing two things, ignoring the familiars from the devils and the gossip of 'that blondie want to get Sona-sama and Rias-sama' that some girls are gossiping all about. First thing I will do when I get home is upping the security in the apartment and on the surroundings just to make sure this kind of shit doesn't happen again.

That meeting was awful. Now the devils know that I probably (and I most certainly am) am a powerful individual. And they even figured that Emily is probably capable as well.

I can already see our future. Rias pressing her breasts at me all the time to try (and fail, I do not lack woman by my side thank you very much) and make me accept give MY SOUL to her in exchange of a peek. I am not Issei.

Emily will probably be pestered by Kiba, not that he has a chance but it will happen. The Gremory seems to think we all are perverts at heart or something.

And to be the cherry of this fucking cake Okuyasu is right now sleeping beside me on his chair proving that if he wants he can sleep quietly. If I knew that he must sleep sitting for him not to roar while sleeping, I'd put him on a chair… or throw one at him last night.

Now I just have to wait for lunch and them my 'fight' with Kiba. The one good thing I can see from today is that I will get paid in the end.

* * *

Lunchtime

Emily P.O.V.

I am such an IDIOT. Why did I think it was a good idea to steal those tickets from Cas yesterday? Now I must deal with HER. Last time I did that I needed to run and hide for a week just for survive as she just did not stop appearing and hunting me down.

At least it is lunchtime now. I can relax and forget my imminent death in a few days.

"Emily-san, do you have a moment?"

*sigh* Why me? I just wanted to enjoy one of my last peaceful meal, but NNNOOOOOO Akeno must get in the way.

"…fine. Let's go to one of the empty rooms on the upper floors, where we can talk more in private."

"Lead the way." Akeno said accompanying me.

After we got there I just looked to somewhere to sit. My priority is my food after all.

Ah, Castiel you are so good to me sometimes. This meat is great and there is so much, he even made some tempura that he knows is my favorite. If he just didn't decide to end me using her I could even kiss him… thinking again it is better not.

"Your lunch seems delicious. Was it you that made it?" Akeno asked.

"No, it was not. I am terrible at cooking, Castiel is the one that made it for me."

"Oh, you two were living together after all so it makes sense." Akeno said nodding her head. "Are you two dating or something?"

"No, we are not." I said simply. I entertained the idea sometimes, but after that time when we were kids and Yuno almost killed me for kissing him, I think it is better to keep a distance… at the very least for now.

"Oh, so he is single." Akeno said with a mischievous and, in my honest opinion dangerous, smile on her face.

"He is not for a long shot. Also, I'd advise you AND Rias not to try and seduce him if you don't actually want to be with him."

With a smirk on her face, she asked: "Why, are you going to attack us if we do that."

"No, all I will do is run far away. There is more than one girl with him and when, and not if, she found out that someone tried to seduce him for their own gains or without any real feeling behind it, well… she can be creative in how to extract her revenge." I said as if it was the most normal thing in the word.

"… I will take your advice as so." She said without confirming if she will listen or not to my warning. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."

"Ask always."

"Are you related to fallen angels?" she turned incredible serious now.

Oh, so she did notice. Took her long enough, she must suck at sense to take this log to realize. In fact, I think they are all beginner level on most things not directly combat related.

"How did you figured out?"

"After we realized that both of you are related to the supernatural I focused on identifying what race you belong. Just a few minutes ago did I managed to identify what you are, you filth." She said with scorn like I am her natural enemy or something.

Oh, she is funny. She thinks I am filthy because of what I am, huh.

She is the type of person that annoys me the most.

"That is funny coming from one that is worst in every way. What gave you the guts to say this sort of thing." I asked starting to get pissed.

"Isn't it obvious. All fallen are liars, they don't care about anyone else. They never do." She said full of anger but with a trace of sadness. "If you try anything against Rias I will…"

"You will what?" I rebuked her before she even managed to finish her statement. "You don't know shit about me. You don't know shit about what I am capable of and if you keep talking in this self-righteous tone like you know it all you will not be capable of talking again."

"I am the priestess of thunder." She got up and started acting haughty "I am the queen of the princes of ruin, Rias Gremory herself and I will not be looked down by some filthy fallen."

"Big words coming from someone like you." I rebuked. I took a step forward "I am half fallen by my father side, just like you." At that, she took a step back. "I never looked down on myself or denied it just because my father IS scum, in my honest opinion, but I do not let him determine what I think of the race as a whole. You, that ran away from everything, in the end, to never look back. You that abandoned your father, that cared for you, unlike my own. You that denied what you ARE and got to the point of selling your soul to the devil just to be something you were not. You are the one that got no right to talk to me like that.

You are weak, not just in fighting power but on the mind as well. Especially on the mind."

I turned around and left the room. It seemed like she wanted to keep talking but I just ignored it all. At least now I can have my lunch in pea… I forgot my lunchbox there.

FUCK.

Oh well, let's go see Castiel. He probably has some lunch left.

* * *

After class

Castiel P.O.V.

I am in a bad mood right now.

Not only has Okuyasu woken up just as lunch started he made me help him on copying my notes about class AND took some of my lunch. Not only that, Emily came in with a dark face sit beside me and started eating the rest. I ended up with nothing at all. Well, at least I got my secret stash of cookies hidden away, I will eat them after the 'fight'.

Not being enough Issei started a sermon in the corridor in front of my class about the magnificence of breasts and not before long one of the bans of my existence came along. Aika Kiryuu, a girl with long brown hair tied in two braids with blue ribbons and hazel colored hair. She uses a circle-rimmed glasses and is, for the lack of better worlds, a female version of Issei. I mean she is not quite as a pervert in the open but loves to look at guys' privates and groping girls' breasts.

Honestly how Sona can be such a prude about some rules but ignore what needed to be truly addressed is beyond me. Last time I saw her she started looking at me funny with a predatorily smile, I know this smile, it is the smile Yuno had last time she saw me getting out of the bath. It is the 'I want what I see and your opinion is irrelevant' smile.

At least after a stressful day, I will get some money for ice cream to relieve my stress. All I need is to beast my stress relieve- I mean Kiba.

I mean it is not like I see him not as a sparring partner but just as a wallet that if I hit hard enough give me cash and relieve my stress. Not like that at all.

As I approach the meeting place I notice that they are all here. Rias is looking interested just as Sona is. Sona's peerage seems to be interested in the show. Issei is glaring at me, maybe the reason could be because I revealed his last peeping spot and he still has marks that show what the girls think of it. Akeno seems to be glaring just the same but with more intensity and not at me but at Emily. Kiba is acting haughty like this is already over and Koneko is only munching in a bag of…

"Koneko those are mine. I left them in my locket." So that is why I could not find my snacks. Damn it, and those are my favorite chocolate chips cookies.

"… mine now." She just turned around and keep eating them like it was obvious, worst part I could see that they are basically over already.

I hate her so much right now. Well, at least I got a stress reliever to deal with all my hate.

"Hey, got the cash or not," I ask, the more important if they are going to waste my time is the cash.

"I still can't believe you. Shouldn't a knight care for honor above all else?" I just nod at it, growing up with Saber made me understand what a knight is all about. "If so how can you make it a necessity for me to pay you just for a challenge. This is not something a knight should do." He then raises his hand and creates a sword on it. Sword birth, a sacred gear capable of generating demonic swords. Powerful in the right hands, in the right hands. "I will show you what I am capable of and you will stop looking down on me. If you are a knight accept my challenge." He says full of confidence and ready to fight with everything he got.

SMIRK

"Oh, I get what you are saying. Unfortunately, I am no knight" I then open a space and draw my sword from it. Magic is so convenient. "I am a _KING_."

The instant I draw my sword an imposing air surrounds me. All the onlookers had the impression that I am the ruler and king of this space. An unstoppable momentum so to say.

"Wha-What is this sword?" Kiba asks with a shocked look on his face.

"This is the **sword of Kupriotes** , one of my father creations made just for me." I was exuding confidence. This is one of the few weapons my dad made after checking what swords on his Unlimited Blade Works could work with me. I have very few but I love all of them (even if one is a pain in the ass to use).

This one here was used by Iskandar the king of conquerors. Its hilt is decorated with the likeness of a lion and the body of the sword is simple but elegant, not overly decorated or suited to a court or noble things it is a weapon of war pure and simple. It is strong and light-weight with a cutting edge that can cut through most metals like they don't even exist and even though it is not a noble phantasm it gives the user a certain immunity to thunder and gives a C-rank charisma to whoever can truly wield it.

"B-But I heard the weapons your father made just disappeared after some time. How can you still have one if he is long dead?" Rias asked after getting up and looked shocked. So she did make a basic investigation of who my father was.

"You are quite correct. The weapons my father made with magic all disappear in under a month of being made. The ones using magic that is."

"What does that mean exactly Castiel-kun?" Sona asked with rapid interest. Not only her but most everyone is looking at me intensely… except for Tsubaki that after looking at me for a few seconds lowered her head and started moving her mouth so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if she learned Caster-san spellcasting technique.

"I mean exactly what I said. My father usually made all weapons he needs using just his magic power that makes things much easier for him as he does not need to worry about losing his weapon or anything of the sort. But that did not stop him to actually make some weapons himself using the materials he received for his missions. There was a whole research team back then to help my father make all sorts of weapons and he made sure to make the best he possibly could to help me."

"That does not matter." Oh, Kiba is getting impatient. "Are we going to fight or not? As a knight, I must show my worth."

"Fine by me. As one that has the disposition of a king, I must show you the reason why no matter how great a knight is he is still below a king."


	10. Chapter 9

**Writer note**

 **I realized that some of you readers seem to have some problem with my story. I will explain things the best I can here.**

 **First, at the start of the story, Issei was not a good guy. I mean he is a certified sex offender that spies on girls changing and keeps commenting on their busts and whatever else he may want. Imagine how the girls must feel being treated as no more than pieces of meat. THAT is the problem here. Later when he starts caring for the girls and treating them like humans instead of mannequins with boobs he will be treated better but at this point (before he even have 1 girls liking him and he likes her back) he is a perverted asshole.**

 **Second is that I am treating them more truthfully. They barely train and suddenly they can beat everyone? I know it is expected of this genre and that it will happen but the way it is here is absurd. I will later show how twisted this world can actually be, so showing the fact that they are not ready now is clear. And if you think I am overreacting think of Sairaorg, a man with no talent that raised to be among the very top by sheer will and training. No fancy parties or tea breaks, he simple trained seriously from the start. He is awesome, a true man in every sense of the word. But what about Rias and her peerage that have more natural talent but don't put it to use? If she put actual effort in training to get better she would be much stronger than him, prove being that after chaos brigade appeared and she and her peerage took things seriously they got really strong really fast. At this point, she and her peerage ARE PLAIN LAZY.**

 **The third is that THIS IS MY HISTORY. Don't like it go somewhere else. I am doing this for myself, not for you that things highly of yourself but cannot even try to do one with seriousness and dedication. I respect your opinion but if it is that my story is trash and will bash my effort you can put your opinion in the trash where it belongs.**

 **...Sorry if this last comment was too heavy. It just really annoys me when those who do not show commitment to their stories or never even bothered to try making one start acting like they know better. I ask for you all to review and tell me what you think of what I am doing, how to make it better and fix possible mistakes but if you will just say 'you suck' then I humbly ask you to shove your opinion there where the sun doesn't reach.**

 **Also, I already have up to 100k ready, it just takes time to edit, so if you want me to stop posting... good luck.**

* * *

Kiba P.O.V.

Why?

Why can't I get a solid hit on him?

I thought it would be simple. I know that technique wise he is strong but my style is centered in my speed granted by the knight piece. I am naturally fast so I learned with my sensei that the best way for me is to focus on my speed so as to raise my chances of hitting as no matter how strong an opponent is a good clean hit of a sword can finish any fight.

With this in mind, I learned how to control my sword with mastery even when moving at max speed, but I still can't win against him.

I move left and try a stab and he parries and gives a counter but as if to mock me he just grazes my left side.

I circulate to the other side and try a diagonal slash and him just side-step and gives a stab that grazes my thigh.

SLASH, STAB, SWEEP, STAB, STAB, SLASH, BASH.

Nothing I do have any sort of effect. The worst part is that we are at it for five minutes now and I am starting to get tired. My body is full of little slashes and I still have not managed to make a single scratch on him. This is even my third blade as after he parried a few attacks my swords just keep breaking.

It must be that sword. I heard of his father before, how he managed to use any weapon and copy the style of the original user has as his own. Castiel must have the same skill on him. Or else it would mean that all my suffering during training did not amount to enough.

"Fight me with your abilities not the ones from your sword if you are a man."

"*sigh* Talk about a sore loser. I know you trained hard during the last, what 3 years, and to reach this level of swordplay in this limited time frame is impressive.

BUT, I have trained with better teachers then yours since I was 6. No tea breaks or relaxation as I know Gremory would have provided you." Wha- It was not like there were that many tea breaks and I did train hard. 4 hours every day for the last 4 years. I am a genius, I learned the path of the sword faster than anyone else and I put my blood, sweat, and tears to get this far. "And one more thing." Suddenly he looks at me and I got the feeling I just screwed up. "I am more of a man and warrior than you will ever be." I just felt like he activated some magic over his body and suddenly he appeared in front of me.

Before his attacks were strong but I could deal with them using my technique to push his sword in a way so as to divert most of the power always from me. Now I can barely hold my sword, or whatever is left of them.

CRUNCH.

After he activated whatever magic he did he got as fast as me and every attack breaks one of my swords.

CRUNCH.

And no matter what I do it just keeps happening. Ice sword. Fire Sword. Pure demonic power sword. Steel sword. Gold sword. Holy eraser, my most powerful sword.

CRUNCH.

All of them break after one strike.

It is like he just decided to go on the offensive, while before he was just on defense and counter. Why is the difference so big? He then decided to come with a round kick aimed at my face. Seeing this I created two swords and crossed them in the front of my face so as to protect it from the impact. He simply did not kick, as he retreated his feet but took advantage of the momentum of the spin to use his sword to another attack. He cut my left thigh.

Shit. With this I can't even move properly. I better get always from him or this will be over.

SWOSH.

I opened my 4 wings and fly high enough to get out of his range. I must get some space between us and think of a strategy, I need to calm down.

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Since when was he holding a bow?

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, look at that. This little self-righteous 'knight' ran on his first difficulty after all. Coward. I would understand if he was trying to get some distance by jumping back, it is a valid strategy, but to actually fly away knowing that as a human I cannot fly is just a cowardly move.

Oh, well. If he wants to stay in the air it just means that it is time for me to switch weapons. I may not have that many but I do have one that can deal with this situation.

 _ **Gandiva**_. The bow of Arjuna, divine flames turned to matter with a hundred strings made of a hundred different divine materials. It was a reward from the flame god Agni to Arjuna, the Awarded Hero, the third of the Pandava brother's son of the king of Kuru and with the blood of the thunder god Indra.

This bow is extremely terrifying, if used at full power it is rhetorically capable of bringing down any foe. It is with this bow that Arjuna defeated his rival and equal in every way Karna, the hero of charity.

My dad took many different jobs from the Hindu pantheon so as to get the materials to make this one. It is one of his best and more difficult works as it was not a sword, but he wanted to create the best he could for his son.

Unfortunately, I am far from capable of using this bow full power, can't even activate most of the inherent skills on it as I just don't have enough energy to do so. The most I can do is give one shot with most of its true power before I go down from exhaustion. The good part is that as long as it is just the basic energy arrows I can use it quite well even if my aim is not as terrifying as my father was. I can at most hit at 500 meters with any accuracy, from what I heard my father could hit anything on a 4 kilometers radius (Writer note: I am not certain if this is his actual limit, but I want to show that Shiro was a badass so in here he could hit a leaf 4 kilometers away, no problem).

I lock on him and pull the bow in a ready position. As soon as I do that some of my energy is transferred to the bow. I can amplify (but make it a bit slower) or just let it go like so (and goes a bit faster). It is better to leave it like so because if I decide to amplify this shot I may cause some serious damage after all.

LAUNCH.

The energy made arrow was true to the aim. In a split second after being released the arrow hit right in the gut. I may not be that good with a bow and arrow but I did train on it quite a lot during the years and, more important, the target just stayed in place not understanding what I was doing. Amateur, if I wanted to kill him he'd be dead.

If this is the level that the peerages of this two have then I can only say they are lucky that no high-level stray devil made his appearance here or they'd be dead.

THUMP.

After falling to the ground he tried to stand up and mount a resistance but as soon as he looked at me with an arrow pointed right in the middle of his face he just gave up.

"You cheater. It was to be an honorable spar between two fellow swordsmen and you take out a bow in the middle of it? Have you no shame?" he said glaring at me like I am some sort of wrench.

"First and foremost, think before you talk. I was doing exactly and even let you stay on the offensive for quite some time and you have not managed to cut me even once. After you offended me I went on the offensive and you ran away flying like some coward chicken knowing that as a human I'd have problems to even get to you and even if I do my capacity would most likely be lessened under this conditions." I said it all with a fed up voice. Really, the only saving grace is that I will get some cash out of this. Boring fight AND the opponent acts like the unholy mix of an overgrown ego swordsman and a baby going through a tantrum.

"I only used what I had in my disposition." He said as if it was obvious. "The deal was that I can go full power against you so as to prove my swordsmanship against yours."

"Then you failed. I beat you in swordsmanship and when you tried to run I just went after you with the most appropriate way in my position. You can't call my use of my bow cheating if you use your wings."

CLAP, CLAP

Suddenly clapping her hands so as to call our attention Rias walked to the front and decided to talk.

"Yuto," Kiba flinched with her look at him. "I am disappointed in you. After all that talk about proving yourself, you have failed and cheated first. I honestly can't say if what Castiel did was right or wrong as it was supposed to be a sword fight but you did lose in the end anyway. The money that I will be giving him will be from your salary."

He just shut his mouth and dropped his head. Well, well, well who would say, the Gremory girl does have some intelligence on her after all. For a moment I thought she would approve of any and everything his peerage member would claim. The members of house Gremory do have this annoying costume, that is one of the reasons the Tohsaka Tower is not in a good relationship with them.

"Yes, Buchou" he just gave up and fell down on the ground. It seems like he went down with the blood loss and the hit on the gut. I did make the arrow be blunt so as to not give permanent damage but it did cause some internal damage. Well, being a devil he will get better by tomorrow at the latest.

"Sorry about Kiba's reaction. He was simple emotional right now, here is our part of the deal." Rias was about to give me my money when…

"Just a moment." Akeno entered in the middle of our talk. Why this is my easy cash. Let me have my cash girl. Generally, I needed to fight on a high-level stray hunt with some of the other members of judgment to get this type of money. I want my MONEY… I may be getting too focused on cash right now, meh don't matter.

"What is it? Do you also think I should not get my payment?"

"Not entirely. It was just that as it ended in an ambiguous way how about we do something special to fix the situation?"

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"Simple really. It is just that we got to see your skills, impressive by the way," She did not seem that much impressed. She must think that Kiba fell because he was careless or that this is my limit. Fool, I am on pair with a high high-level devil while armed with my weapons, maybe higher. "BUT we have not seen what Emily-san is capable of."

At that Emily that was eating popcorn, were did she get one I do not know but I stopped trying to make sense of this girl, was confused about why her name was being called out.

"And what if she refuses?"

"You do not get your money, oh and to make interesting if you guys win I will raise the amount to 50,000 yen."

Emily was about to talk when "DEAL." Castiel talked first.

Emily could only pout but as she would be getting part of the cash she could only accept. She did want some new clothes after all.

Getting to the middle of the stage she asked.

"So who is going to be my opponent?"

"I will." Akeno did not flinch and just stood there as if she already won.

"*sigh* Fine. It is not like this is going to take so long after all." Akeno's smile started to twitch a lot. "So what is it going to be, all out, just magic or just weapons?"

"All out. Defeat condition is when one cannot continue without risking death. That way we can see who is the strong one between us."

"It's your call. But just a warning, it will be a fast battle." Emily said shrugging her shoulders. Issei was looking at her breast that bounced a bit because of it so I did the least of what any other male would do in this situation and gave him a slap on the back of the head.

"HEY, why did you do that?" he glared at me.

"Keep ogling her and I will hit you for real next time." He backed off. "She is one of my friends so if you keep looking at her like that I will scoop your eyes out."

"Ok, ok no ogling your girlfriend I get it." Issei said making signs that showed that he understood the message.

"She is not my girlfriend. We are simple childhood friends that live together, like each other company and are protective of each other."

"O~k, not your girlfriend but your girl friend. Duly noted." He smiled in a way like he was looking at a fool.

Better ignore him. The girls are about to fight and I want to see how this will go. They are about equal in the energy level department, both being low high-level in energy alone so this fight will be decided by who can better use their powers.

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

That last battle was interesting. Kiba was fast as expected, after all, he was recruited for some time now and he did train a lot to better use his speed granted by the knight piece. But, Castiel was just better. On the start of what I could detect he most likely used reinforcement, a common but effective technique from Tohsaka Tower, but he was mostly defending and countering with his sword.

After he went on the offensive he seems to have reinforced himself and used something more, close to what exorcists use to reinforce their bodies (A.K.A. blessings) and overwhelmed Kiba and even when the knight tried to fly he was just shot down by that bow.

That bow is dangerous. Growing up with my sister let me see all types of weapons but that one is among the scarier ones. Thank satan that he seems to be incapable of using its full power.

Now there is another fight about to happen. Akeno challenged Emily to a fight. That will be interesting.

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"Tsubaki, would you mind stop talking that much that fast."

My friend here is amazing in strange ways. Since Castiel showed his sword she started fantasying about him and talk all of what happens to her. This happens since we were kids, whenever she is overflowed she start talking all that comes to her mind. In the last 2 minutes, she described 17 ways Castiel would take her to a new word, including by force. I will take away all her Icha Icha books written by some Grate Sage or something like that.

"Ready?" Rias said, I guess it is about to start.

" **GO**."

Both the girls jumped to action by unfolding their win… why is Emily a fallen angel? And why was I not warned about it?

The both took flight, both exuding approximately the same base amount of energy and both having six wings. Akeno, using the traits of the queen peace, charged a big bout of thunder and got ready to shot it at her adversary. Emily meanwhile charged a light spear to the brim with power and launched it at the same time.

 _ **KABOOOOOMMM**_

I am so glad we turned the bounded fields to the max so as to ensure no one could see or hear us in here. If it was not like that half the city would be looking around thinking that we are in the middle of a terrorist attack.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

Explosions keep happening as Akeno liberate more and more magic while Emily keeps throwing her spears. They are moving fast so as to avoid each other attacks, a gash is made on Akeno skirt and a slight burn is on Emily's hair. They seem equally matched on the outside but if you try and feel their energy reserves it is obvious that Akeno is spending much more. It seems that despite the fact that their striking ability is about equal their cost is different.

Akeno seems to have noticed and on her face is getting desperate. She decided to try and get closer so as to raise her striking power, a valid strategy but a bad on just as well. With no knowledge of what is the specialty of the opponent closing in and abandoning your previous position can be proven fatal.

And it seems like the world decides to prove me right because as soon as Akeno closed in a bit Emily decided to advance in a full frontal physical strike with some spear I had not noticed when she took it out. It is a white spear of the kind that knight used while on horseback, I believe the correct name is a pike. It had a golden tip and decorations in gold as well, it was bigger than Emily herself at about 2,1 meters and it was emanating a strange power but not overly offensive like Castiel weapons.

CRASH

They crossed paths but as soon as they passed each other, Akeno surrounded by her thunders and Emily caring her spear something strange happened. Akeno suddenly fell to the ground on her knees and couldn't get up no matter how much she tried.

"This is my precious spear _**trap of Argalia**_ , it was the beloved lance of Argalia, a knight, and prince from Cathay and also used by Astolfo in many of his adventures and battles and later passed to Bradamante, daughter of Roland himself." Emily explained the origin of the spear. "It is not that powerful and does not give me any boost as it only has one ability. Anyone touched by the tip of this spear will fall to their knee. Not for very long just a few minutes but a second in any battle is the difference between life and death so consider yourself dead a few hundred times."

Wow, that is terrifying. It may not rain fire or other things like that on the enemy, but just the fact it immobilizes them like that already make it more than formidable enough.

At least it seems that the fighting is over now. It was… informative, yeah that is a good word for it. Now how could I make use of them, even if these two refuse to enter my peerage it does not mean that this development can't go to our advantage.

Establishing an alliance with their organization, fighting stray's, exchange of information or just help in case of emergency comes to mind but first, we should wrap this up before we make a negative impression on them. It can be a disaster if treated poorly after all.

"I suppose this concludes things." I said calling attention back to me. "Rias pay them; it was the agreed upon contract after all."

"No, I did not lose yet." Akeno said trying to use her thunder to attack Emily. The answer was very simple, Emily just pushed her finger down and a spear of light fell centimeters from Akeno.

I look up and see that there are five more spears there, very thin ones that look more like big needles. She must have set them up in the air while she was moving earlier. When I tried hard to detect something I notice some threads of light connecting her fingers to the spears so that she can pull them whenever necessary.

Scary, she is not someone I want as an enemy. Her control of her powers is terrifying if she could set such a trap so stealthily during combat facing her in a true fight would not end well.

It seems like Rias realized as well if her face getting paler is any indication.

"You lost. Accept that and stop whining because things did not go your way." Emily said with a serious face. Akeno just kept glaring back at Emily.

"That is enough." Rias said entering in the middle of the two girls. Sighing she went ahead and passed to Emily and Castiel the 50k yen as agreed. Both got these goofy smiles on their faces. They probably don't receive more than the basic needed here so an extra is not a bad thing for them at all. Looking at them like this it is hard to believe that they are that powerfull.

Now all we can do is an wait and see strategy. That is the best option for now.

After that everyone started leaving the place, no point in being there anymore.

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"Tsubaki, everyone is gone already. Can you please come back to reality?"


	11. Chapter 10

**Writer note:**

 **Sorry for taking so long. I am posting the chapters as I finish the future ones, this way I will always have chapters to post.**

 **In general, I will post anytime between 2 and 5 days after the last one, it takes about this long to make a chapter for me.**

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, this week was definitely eventful.

Monday I got in a 'fight' with some weak ass fallen angels.

Tuesday I met, entered into a fight and became fast friends with Okuyasu.

Wednesday the devils FINALLY stopped being incompetents and realized that I and Emily know about the supernatural and even spared with Kiba and Akeno. The best part is the extra money, I was needing some to buy a new game and Emily was wanting a new shirt.

Thursday and Friday were almost the same. Kiba glaring me, Akeno glaring at Emily, Issei glaring and talking shit about me, I punch him whenever he started perving or peeping. The biggest difference is that Tsubaki is now spending as much time as possible during school with me, Sona tried to invite me to her peerage and when it failed she contracted me to help in stray exterminations in town and the most annoying one is that Rias decided to almost run around the school all the time after me to try and make me accept being part of her peerage. That was really annoying.

At least now is Friday night and I have the whole weekend to myself… is what I'd like to say but unfortunately that is far from the truth.

I am now in my way to Tohsaka Tower to have a talk with Rin and train/be tortured some more. Accompanying me are Asia and Okuyasu. Emily chose to stay as she did not want to let the house unprotected, it is better this way after all who knows what the devils could do to our house when we were away. Keep a watchful eye and until you fully trust someone never let your guard down, our relationship with the heiresses are still shaky and it is not like we have an alliance with either house Gremory or house Sitri.

"Hey, how long is it till we get there?" Okuyasu asked as he got bored. I understand as the trip is not exactly short, it takes about 3 hours to get there and he is not exactly the patient type. He should be thankful that I am paying his train ticket for him. Bullet trains are not cheap.

"It is not long now. There are several entries but the closest is around the outskirts of Kyoto. After we get there you will see." I said and decided to doze off. No reason to stay awake and the bounded field I put around the train wagon will warn me if there is any danger.

* * *

One and half-hours' latter

We reached the station some time ago and it is fine now. We are on the way to the base now, it is always interesting to see the reaction of first-timers entering the Tower.

"Hey, where is it? We have been going for some time now so where is this Tosaka tower shit?"

"Okuyasu-san wasn't the name Tohsaka Tower?" Asia tilted her head and seemed confused. Seeing this Okuyasu started to try and explain himself but it was not working. Their interactions are always a good show.

"Don't worry it is right around the corner. We couldn't make it closer or it could be a problem with the Yokai faction, we may be allies but it does not mean we should not respect each other privacy."

After some walking, we arrived. It was beautiful, it was great, it was…

"Hey, you said we were going to the organization, not a game store."

Yep, it was a game store. It was amazing in there, all the newest consoles and more recent names to buy and the price is cheap in comparison to the others.

"Don't worry, come on in and you will see."

I walked inside with confidence and we got to the register. The clerk looked at me and asked.

"What would you like today, is there anything I could help you, sir?"

"I'd like this to be anything else but this." I said this lie out of pure obligations. It was the password for entering the Tower, but why anyone Rin decided that this should be it is a 'mystery' for me. Maybe it is related to her complete inability on actually using anything electronic without it exploding on her.

The 'man' in the counter looked at me a bit harder and then smiled and said.

"Understood, you may go in the back if that is better to you."

I gave a simple nod and when passing I said.

"Oh, and they are with me." I said before the man decided to shoo them away.

I called Asia and Okuyasu, both being confused by my action, and together we went to the back door. After entering there was a magic circle and when in there I send some energy on it and after activating there was a flash that covered us.

A moment later we were no longer in a little room but in a much bigger room. The room is all white and gold with many runes all around it for fortifying the room itself and many different teleportation circles.

"So, that was good right? It may take a while to get here but it is expected, this is a new organization that has top-notch research in many areas and we do have enemies and some others that want to steal our research so we made a special thing to better protect ourselves."

As I urge them to walk with me we get outside the room. Well, a room is not quite the right word, a pavilion is, as it is outside of the main building as to allow others to see the main building itself.

I know I grow up here but I got to admit that it is beautiful. The structure is like a castle but the walls are all made of a special material that is extremely resistant to damage, white mithril was the material if I am not wrong. Building it was quite hard for what I heard and it was only possible thanks to the alchemy from Illya and her maids, the Einzbern is a family specialized in alchemy and homunculi is general after all. After being done it was again reinforced using the runecraft from Lancer-sensei and Bazet-sensei and them it flourished in mana levels to be comparable to some pantheons sacred lands with the help of Caster, she did not have an A-rank territory creation for nothing.

It has a lake on the side and a big forest in the back with a large area made of rocks and mountains where we keep many different beasts to fight and use as materials when needed and to train ourselves in different environments. There are many towers in there, each one for a different department. The homunculi department, the witchcraft department, the magecraft department, the item construct department, the technology department, the medicinal department, the Norse magic department, the senjutsu department, the youjutsu department, the research facilities of bloodlines and of course the main building, that doubles as a school for the supernatural youngsters to come and learn, train and make connections. The only rules to the entry is that you are in the known about the supernatural and to not discriminate others because of pedigree or race. That was a rule made as to make sure that the Tower does not become like the one from the other word, the Clock Tower.

If I was to make a comparison it would be that it looks quite a lot like RWBY vale academy.

"Wow, this is BIG." Okuyasu can only gap to this scene.

"Yeah, it is even bigger than the Vatican." Asia affirms.

"Yep, here is a great place." A voice comes from the side. We all turn to see and suddenly a pink haired girl appears beside us. "It has been a while, Cas-kun. How have you been, did you miss me? I sure missed you." Them before anyone could say anything she tackled me to the ground and hugged me.

*sigh* I knew this was coming. She is an expert in detection and scouting after all... even if her training motivation is *shudder* questionable.

"I have missed you too Yuno-cha, how have you been." And during all this time I am talking she is hugging me on the floor and rubbing her head on my chest.

"Much better now." She said. "Never leave me behind again, okay? Never, never, never, never, nev-"

"Okay, I won't leave you behind again." I better stop her now. If I let her keep going she may start going yandere on me… again. Last time she kidnapped me and hide me in her room, luckily Sela found me after a few hours. They thought it was just a kids' game, I feared for my life. We were 7 back them. She may have calmed down, (thanks, Caster, if not for you a bloodbath would have happened) but not enough to make me not fear for my life every once in a while.

"Hey, Castiel. Who is this chick?" Okuyasu said demonstrating his 'ample' vocabulary.

"Let me get up, Yuno-chan, or I can't properly introduce you." I said to the girl in question.

"No, I don't want to leave your embrace for a single second." She said without a single show of embarrassment. She never really understood what shame is when by my side... or self-restraint. Probably never will either.

So I, still on the ground, being hugged by one of my girlfriends, decided to just introduce them.

"*sigh* Okuyasu, Asia meat one of my girlfriends Yuno Souichirou. We know each other since practically forever and she is a member of Judgment. She is our detection expert. Oh, and she has a 'slight' problem with jealousy." I said with a sweat drop. "Yuno, this is Okuyasu and Asia. I recruited them for the Tower."

She just raised her head slightly and said. "Nice to meet you, Okuyasu" then her eyes turned dead cold and detached and she said "Asia.". The feeling of impending death was abrupt but ended very fast as she restarted the rubbing on my chest as if that killing intent was never there.

She was scary most of the time that there was a girl that was not my girlfriend around me, even Emily. That is why Emily runs and hide every time Yuno is around, and because when we were kids Yuno chased her around the whole Tower with a chainsaw screaming 'stay away from MY Castiel'.

I am so happy that Caster managed to put some sense into her, if not she would have started a killing spree long ago.

After a while, I got tired of being on the ground and just got up anyway. I know for a fact that, if I let her, she'd want to stay like that for the next few months. Scary thought, but a universal truth when it comes to Yuno.

"Let's go you guys. I must introduce you to the director." I said looking at Okuyasu and Asia. "Yuno-chan, you got your obligations to take care off, right?" She is the expert on scouting so she goes on missions a lot, I wouldn't doubt one bit if she was on a mission but abandoned it without a second thought when she imagined that she could come see me.

"Yep, I sure do. I was tracking some stray devil, but it is not important" I bet it was. "As your future wife my main obligation is and will always be staying with you, now and forever." Yuno said as if natural while hugging my arm.

*SIGH* I knew it would be like this. It is useless to try and make her get out of me. Better to just accept and go ahead as I do not want to be late.

* * *

Corridor on the way to the director's office

Luckily a few moments ago a message came to Yuno from the leader of Judgment calling for a mission so she had to leave. I had to promise her to go on a date later with her or she might drug me and take me to a date anyway, hahaha… I wish this hadn't happened before.

Well, anyway, we were walking in the direction of the director's office when we heard a voice calling out to us.

"Heh, isn't the little Cas. What, had you missed your teacher here." With a loud voice a man with blue hair, red eyes, feral smile and a Hawaiian shirt came to view.

"Hello, Lancer-sensei. How have you been." I beamed at him. He may be a 'bit' crazy and battle junkie but he is a great guy. Honest and direct, do things his way and is a great teacher (and not sadist as most others here).

"I have been great, just came back from fishing on the lake and even got some fish. Kuroko on the other hand…" He smiled at first but it became more and more strained with time.

"What happened to her?" I asked a bit worried. She may be strong and I doubt she would get in any possible fatal situation with her skills.

"Bazet was not happy with her actions early this week." I stand corrected. "As she went to your home without informing anyone, got in a fight against fallen angels that could make things complicated to us AND skipped on her practice on production to Fragarach, well you can imagine the results." *shudder* Note to self, buy some chocolates for her. Last time she made something like that Bazet made her practice with her hand to hand combat in a high-speed healing room (and even then she looked like she went throw a meat grinder at least three times... and it wouldn't surprise me if she had).

"What was the punishment?"

"She went to survival training with her sacred gear blocked and wearing clothes that made her weight two times more." Oh, god. Sorry Kuroko, I promise to make it up to you. I owe you one.

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of Germany

"LOVE YOU TOO, ONII-SAMA!" a happy voice cheered in pure happiness ignoring the stares from the others in the room.

"Doubt. What is the reason for that happiness, Kuroko-chan" a slightly unemotional female voice asked.

"Huhuhuh, so my eternal enemy the dark lord Honyopeniooko decided to attack the mind of my companion. Fear not, with my cursed right hand of Machalevious I will heal you." Another voice that was almost identical to the previous one said, in a chuunibyou way, some nonsense.

"It must be her awakening for JUSTICE!" a third voice said with a smile that looked pure, but on the word 'justice' turned feral.

"Are the three of you girls going to be quiet or not? We are on a mission and distractions have no place here." A stern feminine voice said.

"Hay, Bazet-sensei/Okaa-sama." All four girls affirmed.

And them the mission continued…

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

"Oh, and who are those two, Castiel? Friends from school?" Lancer-sensei asked.

"Kinda, they both have sacred gears and are interested in being part of the Tower." I said with a shrug.

"Ohh, a sacred gear. So what do your gears do?" He said turning to the two of them.

"Mine is called **twilight healing**. It can heal anyone independent of the race." Asia said but Lancer-sensei did not really seem to care. He just wants to fight so a healing gear is next to useless for him. If you can heal others, great, but if you can fight, much better.

"Mine is **The Hand of the Divine** or just **The Hand**. It is two gloves, the left one can turn back the time of an object once a day so as heal it." Okuyasu said. Lancer-sensei seemed a bit more interested but soon asked a question about him.

"And what does your right glove do?"

"I-It does nothing." He turned his head to the side and started whistling… he does not know how to lie AT ALL. He is stupidly honest.

"Yeah right. You made me interested, tell me." He gave a feral smile like a wolf that smelled his prey. He even started to unconsciously liberate some of his bloodlust. Okuyasu looks positively frightened and Asia already hides on his back.

"My right hand can scrap space itself and eliminate whatever it passed throw." He blurted out. The bloodlust increased several times over. Lancer-sensei may be a great guy but he loves battles WAY too much. Anyone that can become a challenge to him is great news.

"Oho, after you sign in I will make sure to train you right. Being afraid of your powers is stupid." Seems like Lancer-sensei also caught on the fact that Okuyasu seems to fear his own ability. I understand being afraid of this skill, but being reluctant to using your ability because of it is stupid.

After hearing what Lancer said Okuyasu shivered quite a lot. Lancer-sensei them turned around and walked away while waving his arm 'bye' as he most likely had some appointment now.

Probably a mission that is very dangerous... or a new bar has opened. Again, he is a great guy but he likes to mess around every once in a while.

"I think my lifespan may have just been cut for a few years." Okuyasu said.

"I don't think so. If Lancer-sensei eyes are any indication it was definitely cut by many years, he is aiming at you now." I said putting a hand on his shoulders while he dropped his head. Poor guy.

* * *

Director's office

As we entered we saw one woman in the office. She had waist length wavy black hair styled in twin-tails, she also had aqua blue eyes and a slender body.

"Oh, hello Castiel-kun. Are you fine? Are these the ones you said wanted to enter the Tower?" Rin Tohsaka the main director of the institution said with a smile on her face. Looking like this she seems just like a gentle and perfect leader.

Bullshit, two-faced demon. I still remember you making me help in some of your experiments and ending up looking like a member of the blue men group for one whole fucking week.

"Yes, Rin-sensei. These are Okuyasu Higashikata and Asia Argento. I invited them to enter the institution and they agreed." I said after looking at her, giving my own fake smile.

"Understood." She then turned to the newcomers. "Welcome to the Tohsaka Tower. We will indicate a guide to show you around and if you agree to sign this geass," She pulled out a contract on her drawer" that dictates that any confidential intel that you come to obtain during your stay here will not be divulged, we will welcome you as one of our members." She said in a formal but warm voice. Really she is faker than a three dollars note.

The Tower does not have strict entrance requirements. It is closer to a school after all, so being secretive is counter-productive.

"If it is like that I can show th-" I tried to say, hoping to run away right now, but…

"No need. I will just ask one of the Sisters to do it." She then turned to them again and continued. "If you'd please go to the door on the left your escort will be arriving shortly."

They were going there and I tried to go together, but before I could take the second step a hand was on my shoulders. The fingers may seem delicate, but the strength she is using is anything but.

"Castiel-kun, I'd like to have a talk with you. Would you mind staying here a minute more?" Rin said still smiling. A shiver ran down my back with that.

As soon as the door to heaven closed I turn to the smiling devil in front of me.

"Dogeza, now!" A commanding and in no way gentle voice said.

"Hay, Rin-sensei." I immediately went on my knees. Dignity be damned in front of her glare.

"… you went to study in a normal school to live a regular life before you had to take your place as heir to the Tohsaka Tower, correct?" Rin said in a neutral voice.

"Yes."

"You managed to hide your capacities from the two devil heiresses during an entire year, correct?"

"Yes."

"And on the first week of your second year, you decided to fight three fallen angels, a bunch of stray exorcist AND was revealed to the heiresses that, might I add, come from two clans that we are not in great relationships at the moment, correct?" a tick mark appeared on her forehead.

"Well…"

"Castiel, you idiotic son of your father. Why had you decided to do this? You wanted what, create a new war between the fallen and devils by killing some of them in devil territory? Or did you want to force us into a difficult position with two devil clans that have freaking SATANS on them?" She screamed at me. Her eyes are a bit red from pure rage and if I didn't know any better I'd say she unlocked Mad Enhancement.

"I just wanted to help Asia-chan that I met that day." I said trying to explain myself.

It did not make things better at all. Apparently, this made her recall my father doing idiotic things that could lead the whole Tower to ruin many times over just to save an innocent.

It was not a one-time thing for what I heard. It was almost weekly at some point.

"You must be punished properly for this." Rin said as she got a pensive face thinking about what would be the most appropriate punishment for me.

Her smile then was not a good thing.

It was decided in the end that my punishment would be a special course survival training for 12 fucking hours and be a beta-tester to some of the new training they developed (read new torture methods). Also, I have to create an alliance with both devil houses or come back to the tower to better training as heir. I hate my life so freaking much right now.

* * *

Third person P.O.V.

What Castiel did not know is that after he left the room Rin released a deep sigh and sat back in her chair.

She took from one of her drawers another thing this time, a photo of her and Shiro. While looking at it she said.

"He reminds me of you sometimes, you know. Idiotic love of my life, why did you leave me behind at that time." She started sobbing a bit, that was a side of her that she would not show anyone else. The woman that missed her beloved.

She then looked at the ceiling and said.

"You better get this alliance, Castiel. We will need everything we can and soon if what we fear comes to pass."

* * *

 **Writer Note 2:**

 **I want to hear what you guys have to say, what would be the best training sessions (read torture) for Castiel.**

 **You are more than welcome to send me a PM about any idea you may have, but please don't send me PMs just to say how you hate my story and things like that. I already got some of those and some of those that send me these keep sending me this sort of thing**.


	12. Chapter 11

Castiel P.O.V.

Sometimes I wonder, where did this come from?

BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

*pant* *pant* really where did my life go so bad like this?

"Castiel no spacing out. Focus on the training more!"

"Yes, Saber-sensei!" I exclaimed.

Honestly, this sucks.

* * *

A few minutes earlier

"It is good for you to come back; we did miss you." Saber-sensei said with a little smile on her face.

She is a petite woman that looks barely 20 with a really slender figure, golden short hair done in braid, blue eyes and a white but healthy skin. She also had a regal aura around her that makes most want to bow to her and serve her for eternity. Really, it seems like in this universe the effects of charisma are much greater than in the other word. Mine while using the sword of the king of conquerors was only D-rank but already could charm many people, Saber's B+ -Rank is capable of making people want to serve her forever at first sight. Honestly, I wonder what would happen if someone got an Ex-rank charisma, they'd probably be the automatic king of the world just for existing.

"I am doing great, sensei." I answered her.

"Good, good, I heard that you entered a fight with some of the fallen to make sure an innocent was unharmed."

"Yes, sensei." I said in an excited tone. Saber always had a soft spot for people that get in a problem for saving others, case in point my dad.

"But," shit a 'but' in these situations is never a good thing. "I also heard that you got a slight wound during the encounter." Her tone hardened, I am so dead. Better try to make things look better.

"Well, it happened but it was just a graze and-"

BBBAAAAMMM

Shit, did she need to hit me with the flat side of Excalibur while using mana burst? I feel like shit already and some of my ribs are cracked, good thing that on the training grounds these kinds of wounds heal in a question of seconds.

"Castiel, I had warned you to never underestimate any opponent. Not only you had not used one of your weapons you had not used your armor as well. This is an unforgivable sin on any battlefield." She said with a glare that would make any weak-minded man tremble in fear.

"Sorry sensei. I swear I will not do it again." I said giving a polite bow while ignoring the pain of my ribs regenerating.

"Good, next time I hear of you going easy like this on any opponent I will retrain you from the start." A shiver ran down my back from hearing that.

"Ok, sensei." I said and she gave a confirmation nod. "By the way, how did you know I had been wounded and that I'd not used my weapons or armor?"

"Oh, Yuno-chan had found that out and told us all." Yuno why did you do this? Are you still mad at me for going to Kuoh? I thought we agreed that I'd go there and later I'd marry you (no point in not taking advantage of the contract that she made me sign long ago anyway).

"*sigh* soo… what is the training you planed for me sensei? Aunt Rin said I was going to be a beta tester or something." I said changing the subject, no point in focusing on this.

"Glad you asked, this here is a suit I need you to wear for this." Saber said while presenting me a blue leotard that looks awful in all possible manners.

I sighed and went ahead to dress on this monstrosity, really it looks like something Lancer would approve with his fashion sense.

FLASH

Wha- where did this come from. On the corner of my eye, I see some long pink hair vanishing with a camera in hand, I wish so much that Yuno did not have her sacred gear these times. So freaking much.

After I put the *shudder* clothe Saber-sensei decided to explain the exercise to me.

"As you finished with that I want you to do something simple, I want you to show the forms that you practiced before."

"Ok, this seems simple enough." I first put myself in position. Relax the shoulders, firm back, up the arms on the ideal position to not let any ope-

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

Shit. Where did this shock come from? I was just going into the proper posture and suddenly I received a thundershock not unlike the one from one of my familiars.

"Again!" Saber said beside me unperturbed.

Breath in, breath out. It is probably some new thing of this suit. Probably as long as I got the movements right nothing will happen. Now let's do it like before but more carefully. Relax the shoulders and-

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

The hell. I barely even started.

"Too slow. Again!" Saber declared.

I tried again.

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

Again.

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

And guess what, again.

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

Until finally I managed to get the right initial posture. At least now there won't be any more shocks.

"What are you waiting for? I want to see ALL attacks on the right way. And if you finish it on time we will do a sparring session between you and Arthur." And that is why I say Kiba can't be a good sparring match to me.

Arthur is the real deal when it comes to talent for this and I am used to sparring with him or heroes of legend (A.K.A. my senseis) or their students.

Oh well, at least this training could be worst.

"While using this suit."

Kill me, now. I either lose and possibly get killed or go forever having Arthur calling me Lancer wannabe... I don't know which one is worst at this point.

* * *

3 hours later

And that is how I got on this situa-

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

"Again. The moment when you make a stab motion you should lower your elbows 2,5 centimeters more and 2 millimeters to the right."

That is why I hate being a beta-tester. It always involves too much pain. I seriously wonder if they make these trainings just as punishment or they actually think of using them on anyone else.

* * *

Saber P.O.V.

This really is surprising. Castiel really has some talent on the art of the sword. He already managed to go this far on this regime that I made for him. Considering that this suit takes the example of swordsmanship of myself and Assassin as bases and computes the best possible movement it really surprises me that he managed to even complete more than 5 forms on these three hours.

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

"Again. Your left foot was too much on the inside, correct that as it can unbalance you if you are to move too quickly." I explained to him how to better move. Considering that his focus I distributed between many different areas it is surprising that he got this good.

If we were in Camelot I'd make him a squire and possible a knight, not one of those that sit on the roundtable but a knight nonetheless.

The only shame is that Rin-

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

Decided to triple the shock as punishment for what he did.

Well, it seems like he won't finish this on time for the next lesson so there will be no sparing with Arthur. A shame really, I'd like to see a battle between my two main students.

BBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT

"Again"

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Finally, it is over. Took me 5 hours to finish all the necessary moves that Saber-sensei wanted me too. Don't even know how many shocks I took.

Now I am going to Kuzuki-sensei as my next special class as beta-tester.

As soon as I opened the door there he was. He was sitting in his chair correcting a bunch of tests, he is one of the teachers here after all.

He is a tall and physically fit man, short dark hair and a stoic and most of the time emotionless face. He also uses glasses even if he does not really need them all that much.

"Oh, Castiel-kun I was told that you would be coming."

"Yes, Kuzuki-sensei."

He then knitted his brows and said.

"I see that you have not improved in your breathing technique." Shit. "Here, you are to use this during the training I was requested to give you."

He gave me a face mask that covers everything from my nose to bellow. I put it and I don't see the differ-

Can't breathe, I need air fast. It must be this mask I must remove it.

PUNCH

The hell, Kuzuki-sensei punched my hand away when I tried to remove the mask.

"Relax, this mask only allows someone with a perfect breathing you will be capable of breathing like normal."

I tried doing as he said. It is harder than it may seem, too much and it blocks, too little and it blocks, exhales too much and it blocks. I can barely breath more than 40% of my normal and this is when I am focusing on my breath, how Kuzuki-sensei manages to do it all the time is way beyond me.

"Good. Now you must wear this special clothes as well." I can feel myself hating this clothes even before wearing them. At least they are not blue leotards like previously, these ones are closer to regular gym clothes but have some small metal wires all around them.

I wear them and they feel fine, no shocks (what a relief) nor anything.

"Good, now accompany me. We are going to the gymnasium to train your physique." He turns around and begins walking. I tried to follow but I just can't move well. Why can't I move?

"You must have a perfect walk or this clothes will not allow you to walk." Well, this is going to su- can't breathe again, focus, focus- this is going to suck.

Finally getting to the gymnasium after 30 minutes (it was a 5-minute walk normally, stupid clothes) Sensei made me do basic weight lifting stuff.

"First, do push-ups. 200 should be enough." He said and I cheered inside. Compared to most things he makes me do this is easy.

As I started it did not seem so bad, hard to breathe for sure but not bad. Then he puts something on my back.

Heavy.

Why the hell is he putting weights on my back.

"These are 200 kilos in weights. It is so that your arm strength rises." He then jumps on top of it, just to make things more ideal. "What are you waiting for? Keep going."

I started again, but it is hard as hell. Doing this bullshit is taking everything from me.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Castiel, I heard you got an A- in the last world history test." This is so going to suck.

"Y-yes!" I said focus on my breathing. This mask is NOT making things any easier for me.

"We will do some recap of the subjects. I also want to hear in loud and good sound the relation the events in recorded human history have with the many pantheons. For every wrong comment or answer, I will add more 50 kilos."

Did I say that my teachers are sadists? Well, they clearly are.

* * *

After spending a total of 2 and a half hours on the gym doing this kind of thing (after push-ups were weightlifting, abdominals, and stretching[which entails being put into and machine that forcefully stretches me until my bones and joints to the point just when they are going to break, and then stays there for a few minutes]) he decided that I needed to train my stamina.

So here I am in the tracking field with him and Rider. He asked her for help for the next exercise. The two are so funny together that a funeral seems closer to a happy place… well, it may just be the opinion of my brain working at 50% the regular oxygen (stupid mask).

"For the next exercise, we will do something different. Rider here agreed to help you as I must go back to correcting those tests." He then gave a formal bow in my direction, he really is a formal dude when he is not torturing my sore ass. "Have a nice day." then he turned around to go back to his tests.

How he can be such exemplary teacher for some and a sadist to me is unknown to my mind... it 'may' have something to do with Yuno proclaiming she loves me more than him when she was 7, it is just a possibility.

"You will run in this area for the next hour." That's it, no more explanation. She really takes the quiet beauty stereotype seriously.

I then started jogging, it still sucks as this clothes get in the way quite a lot.

PIERCE

Shit, something hit my leg.

"No slacking off." Rider said with a small smile and her chain-nail with some of my blood on it.

I tried to run but these clothes are getting in the way, I must go as fast as I can with a perfect walk.

As I put my whole mind to going faster in a perfect moving way I managed to reach a decent speed. I hope that it must be enou-

PIERCE

Yep, not enough. This fucking hurts, if this room was not made with the express intent of healing faster I doubt I could move if I got a few more of those.

If this speed is not good enough I have no choice. I activate my field so as to better protect myself. This field is a combination of a bounded field that uses me as central coordinates and runes. Its main function is to detect the intended path AND, by using the runes, create small space distortions so as to better protect me from projectiles.

It can even be linked to my subconscious so as to let me automatically evade any attacks that I can't fully redirect. The good part, it helps in my more than lackluster defense; the bad part, it spends A FUCKING LOT of energy and I can't keep it up for more than a few minutes. This is only a temporary solution but it may just be enough.

PIER-fail

PIER-fail

Haha. Finally, something is going my way. Managing to evade her nail is just too good, I know it is FAR from her full speed that she can do it but if it goes any faster she would hurt me seriously and she would not do that.

It would make me incapable of training for a time after all.

GGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Why is there a growling sound coming from my back?

I took a small look back. Yep, Rider had summoned and was sitting on her Suicune (This is the offspring of one of the guardians of the lady of the lake, he shoots **ice beam,** **water canon, Blizard** and he even shoots some **ice shards** ) and by using her noble-phantasm Bellerophon to 'force' it to shoot ice shards at me. That is a lot of ice.

And by 'force' him, I mean to force him NOT to shoot me with more of those as I know for a fact that he hates my guts. Maybe it somethinging to do with another one of my swords. Most beasts hate me by sheer instinct.

Before I realized my body moved to the ground, that is one of the bad points of my special field. It allows me to evade automatically, but it also forces me to evade automatically independent of what my conscious mind may want.

"Get up or I will bring more of my mounts."

I got up and suddenly I see more shards coming to the position I am now, the only way to avoid it is by running faster.

See, that is why I hate the trainings they put me through.

* * *

Saturday's nightfall

Finally, it is the night. My training with Rider ended an hour ago and I got a whole hour to recover. My body still feels like it went through a meat-grinder, which is not far from the truth, but at least now there is only one training left for my weekend. The survival one. I somehow want to repeat all previous trainings just to not do this one at all.

As I reach the mountain I see some people are already there waiting for me.

"Hello, Castiel. How has your day been?" With a smile on her lovely face, Illya asked.

Sella and Leysritt also looked at me and gave a polite bowl for me. Since small they helped take care of me once in a while, I am 'according to them' the 'protection target number 2'. Orders of Illya when I was born apparently, her orders still are more important than my life but at least they do protect me whenever it is needed.

"I had been better. Had a training with Saber, Kuzuki and Rider today so you can imagine how my body feels." I tried to throw the pity card, but if her unchanging smile was anything to go by, it did not work. Resisting a sigh I said. "And you? Had you been doing something interesting?"

"Oh yeah. I have made many advancements in my new homunculus project. It will probably be ready in a few weeks. I just need to think of what her main directive will be and wait for her full maturation."

Fun fact about homunculus in general, they need an objective so as to define their basic objective so as to allow them to be anything more than just an object. It can be something simple, like help on my homework or difficult like save the world. It does not matter what it is, it can be anything as it is a way to give them an initial drive to start living.

"Interesting. So… what will be the definitions of this training this time around?" I asked hoping it would be simple. And better yet, survivable.

"Nothing complicated. I just need to have somewhere to throw all my frustration with that annoying brat. I can't kill him, but I sure need somewhere to release this stress." Illya said with a smile even though she obviously is full of hostility right now. For what I heard she was like this since a long time ago, she smiles sweetly while planning the death and torture of others.

Did I said before that she gets along VERY and DISTURBINGLY well with Yuno? Well they do.

"Is the annoying bastard in question, Sairaorg-san?" I asked.

"Yes! That plague just won't leave me alone." She said with clear irritation in her voice.

Since two years ago Sairaorg comes here every week to declare his love for Illya, and she hates it. According to him since the first time he saw her, he decided she was the queen of his heart and he'd do anything for her. According to her, he is just a brat that things with his fists and she has no interest in devil high-society OR Sairaorg himself.

Last time I saw them together she sends Berserker *shivers* to, and I quote, 'make it so that he can't move for a week' and that Berserker did, unfortunately, one week and a day later he was back again with roses and chocolate and a thank you for helping him train with the help of Berserker.

She was not pleased with this at all.

"Oh, as you are a good boy I will give you an advantage." Illya said in a happy tone. "You will only have to go 14 hours instead of the 15 that you should have to do after your training with Kuzuki. I am a good person don't you think?" she said with a pretty smile. Looking at her like this, big smile, white straight hair, red eyes and a slender (as in no boobs) body type of a typical 20-ish girl could make most think of her as a pure and adorable angel. For me that does know her, I can only feel a sweat drop and terror for knowing that smile.

"Ok, let's get started them. Do I get a head start Illya-obasama?" I said using puppy dog eyes on her. She saw me growing up and even held me in her arms as a baby, it will work somehow.

"Hum, fine you get two minutes starting now." As soon as she said that I darted forward putting all I could in my reinforcement and even making some runes to help accelerate myself. Now there is just one thing to do.

RUN, CASTIEL RUN!

* * *

Five minutes' latter

3° person P.O.V.

"Well, now the time is up. Sella, had you kept the tracking spell on him?" Illya said.

"Yes, Illya-sama. I used the spell as ordered while he was distracted talking to you." Sella said. "But was there any real need for doing something this underhanded to him? It is not something a proper lady such as yourself should do."

"That is where you are mistaken. Lying and deceiving may seem bad but they are the nature of all magus such as myself." Illya said as if natural and with no trace of shame. "Also, he must learn how to deal with underhanded tactics and if he fell for that he really needs to understand."

"You just…wanted a…punching bag fast…right, Illya-sama?" Leysritt asked.

Illya getting a small red hue on her checks said.

"No matter, we must get going. Leysritt, use your halberd to attack him whenever you can, Sella, rain fire on him as much as possible. But you both must remember that in case he ends up dismembered do not attack the arm or leg that falls as remaking them is too bothersome."

""Understood Illya-sama!""

"I meanwhile will keep it simple." She then turned to the tower where the homunculi research facilities are and said. "Come, BERSERKER!"

Suddenly a huge figure off about 3,5 meters high with a gray skin, wild big dark hair and using a Kilt made of iron and a 'sword' that is closer to a castle wall forced in the rough shape of what may or may not be classified as a sword appeared. His golden eyes looking around until he found the one he decided, even during his madness, to save and help forever.

With one jump he managed to travel the 3 kilometers distance as if normal and as soon as he arrived he pulled Illya to his shoulders that were so big that she could still sit on one of them even after she has grown up.

"Let's go. The survival training still has more than 14 hours to go." And with a smile that would not be misplaced on Lancer's face, they went after their poor pray.

" ** _RRooOoaAAaaR_**!"

* * *

Omake:

Asia's day has been going wonderfully. She met many people and is helping in healing many different people.

Hearing they thanking her in earnest, knowing that she is helping in relieving their pain... that was wonderful for her.

It was almost like a dream come true, and Okuyasu by her side making jokes and trying his hardest to make her smile was heartwarming.

But if there is something she could not understand was,

Why was there a note on her desk saying 'if you go for him I will kill you, slowly and painfully so'.

Who could have sent this message? The writer just put one thing on the end of the message, a sender signed 'Y.K.'.

Who could it be?

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I apologize if someone feels that it is wrong to change Rider's mount from Pegasus to Suicune, but, being completely honest, Rider's Noble Phantasm was never the Pegasus but Bellerophon that control beast so giving her more beasts for different scenarios makes sense.**

 **I mean she is in this other world with so many different species that expecting her to not get anymore is absurd.**

 **Also, yes Suicune IS the legendary pokemon. I am a fan of the franchise and games, sue me.**

 **BTW: was the training painfull enough? If you got ideas about how to make even more painful ones you are more than welcome to send me those ideas via PM. I can make them into Omakes and will make it a point to credit the idea to whoever sent it to me.**


	13. Chapter 12

Castiel P.O.V.

Hello, my name is Castiel. I am a 16 years old guy. I had a decent life up until now, got beautiful girls to fall in love with me (even if some have _a little too much_ love), was highly respected between my friends and even was somewhat strong. And yes, I am talking in past term as... well…

"RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR"

A juggernaut is using me as a baseball bat, the balls being rocks being thrown by a pissed of Sella. I thank all gods there are (except Hades and Loki, they are assholes) that I learned reinforcement and am using my combat uniform. It is composed of a white trench coat with black highlights and green collar. The trench coats sides are also green but with some highlights in gold. Underneath there is a white dress shirt with golden high lights and a black tie. There are also white trousers with the laterals in silver and black and slightly pointed shoes. It is all made using special techniques of the Fraga's (Bazet-sensei family) to make it as sturdy as the energy I put into it by using the runes imbued in the fabric. It can change colors when needed and even can recover itself from any tears that may appear. And the best part is that there are small gems on the inside so as to accumulate magic energy for emergencies and many pockets with small dimensional pockets so as to make sure I can carry any needed supply such as gems with pre-made spells (not that I have many and most can't do much, it is more so as to give me more flexibility) and the most important is the phoenixes tears (for when I need to heal myself).

I am thinking about useless things right now, why am I

SLAM

Oh, look at that, there is a shooting star in the sky right now… wait, was the ground always spinning like this?

* * *

Meanwhile

"Berserker, I told you to hold firmly or you'd send him flying. Now we are going to have to go after him in the middle of the woods again." An annoyed Illya said while giving a pout for not getting to see the end of the 'baseball match?' that she was enjoying. "Sella, are you still keeping score about where he was launched too?"

"Yes, Illya-sama." Sella said with all professionalism expected from her. "But won't keeping on this game be boring like this?"

"Oh, don't worry. I still have many games to play, like seeing how far he can be launched by a punch or a kick from Berserker, or how much he can stretch now after training that weird style of Kuzuki to better his flexibility or even just see how much he can run while we chase him." An angelic face and voice said this all in total discordance with the words said. "Like I said, there are plenty of fun games and experiments to try out. Now let's go."

""Yes, Illya-sama""

* * *

Many, many torturous and VERY painful hours later

Castiel P.O.V.

I am happy right now. Happy for the existence of the phoenix tears as I know I must have used like 3 boxes of those potions and, if it was not so, I'd die at least 157 times over.

Really, who had the brilliant idea of letting Illya watch the Olympics and challenge her to do better? I swear that I may beat some of those gymnastics on how much my body can go in impossible angles right now.

Oh well, at least now I can take a short break here in the lounge as I have sometime before I have to go back home. 'You best get an alliance with those devil houses or you will come back here to better train as an heir.' Shit, just as I was thinking of getting a good rest this three times dammed memories came back.

As I was headbutting the table to see if I can force myself to forget about this deal… and see if I still have the ability to feel anything on my head (I was LITERALLY smacked head first on a mountain to see what is tougher) I hear a noise beside me.

As I turned around I am greeted by a 13 to 14 years old girl, she has chestnut hair reaching her shoulder slender figure used and white loose socks and brown loafers with a light brown vest sweater over a white blouse and grey skirt with high-tech goggles in her head. She also has brown eyes that are mostly vacant. She is part of the 'SISTERS', a group of homunculi that works as a single organism by using electromagnetism, they number in about 20 thousand and while individually weak (mostly about low mid-level) they have an absolute advantage in that even if a unity dies their mind is safe in the system so she can be remade and reborn as many times as needed.

They usually work as assistants, cleaners and are the main fighting force in case of an emergency as they can work perfectly in the group and use weaponry they get from the machinery department.

They truly are the masterpiece of Illya and the homunculi department.

"Castiel-sama there is a guest here looking for you, Misaka informs dutifully." Oh, I almost forgot they are named Misaka sisters, they chose the name themselves and we agreed to it as we wanted them to be as happy and free as possible. So much so that the working time is limited, they get paid vacations and all meals and money they may want is provided, in all honesty, it is closer to any regular workers, but in this case, we made them.

"Okay, I will go met this guest. By the way, how are they doing, you know the ones that came with me."

"They are doing fine, Misaka informs. They had a pleasurable weekend sightseeing the facilities and their only responsibilities were helping in the medical hall in some cases but it did not take long or was hard as well, says Misaka rubbing salt in the injured." She says with a blank face but I can see the amusement in her tone. She knows I had an awful weekend and Okuyasu with Asia had it good and she is rubbing it on my face.

"Fine. And Yuno, Seryu or the others?"

"Yuno-sama went this morning in an undercover mission in Hawaii, Seryu-sama is on the wilderness in the underworld to help hunting down some strays, Kuroko-sama and the twins are in a mission with Bazzet-sama, Misaka informs getting impatient and wanting to go get some rest as her work hours ended two minutes ago."

"… you really are not discrete about your thoughts, huh, Misaka-1136?"

Budging her eyes a little she says "I did not expect you to be able to notice which one I am, Misaka says surprised about the revelation."

"Well you may be homunculi and clones of one another but you still are individuals so knowing you by name is natural." I said with a shrug off my shoulders. "Now where is this guest?" I said standing up, god my legs hurt. No matter how good a potion is breaking almost all your bones 12 times will still be painful later on.

"Right this way, says Misaka turning and going ahead."

As I approach the room I notice that the clime gets a bit hotter, not so much that it is unbearable but it still is noticeable.

Opening the door, I see a blond man. He is dressed like a pimp (I never understood his sense of fashion) with a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery on the right with matching pants and black dress shoes. No shirt underneath so as to showcase his chest better and a stupid hat that is also burgundy with even a fucking cane.

To complete the design, it is full of details in zebra and even wears a chain of a bird on top of a dollar symbol. If I didn't know him any better, I'd call him a cosplayer… forget that this can only be a fucking cosplay.

"Cas, long time no see." He greeted energetically. "How have you been?"

"Well enough Raiser." I answered my longtime friend, Riser Phoenix. "Well, if you exclude the fact that I just went through a marathon of beta-testing AND survival training." I said making him shiver a bit and give me a pitying look. He knows how awful those are. "By the way, I will need more of those tears as this weekend I spend way too much for comfort." I said.

"Fine by me, and no worries you will get a special discount as a friend of the family and my own." He said smiling. Yep, I am friends with a dude that likes to dress-up as a pimp, it is weird I know.

"But let's be honest why are you here?" I asked. He doesn't come here very often and to be here right when I am, means he most likely wanted to talk with me.

He may like to pretend otherwise but he is an open book for those that know him well. Kinda like me.

"No particular reason. Just wanted to take a walk and get some fresh air as the air on the underworld is too heavy for my taste, too much fire and heat for me." He said as if normal with so much flare on his movements that it would fit in a play. Devils and their love for theater, I will never understand this.

"Oh, so it is not about that engagement?" I asked knowing the answer.

"…" he looks the other way.

"I noticed that it is not quite consensual between you two. She seems adamant in revoking the marriage by any means necessary." I said with a smirk on my face. It is coming in

THREE

TWO

O-

"So why can't she just go and break the contract already." I knew it. "If I could dismiss this whole charade I'd do it in a heartbeat." He said with an angry face. "She doesn't want to marry me? I don't want to marry her." Wel, he is pissed if the room temperature rising is any indication. "But a contract was already signed and neither one of us can change it without tarnishing their houses honor." He said with a tired face. He may hate the idea of marrying her, but he'd never do anything that may out his house in a bad position. He cares about his house way too much for that.

"Man I underst-" I tried to talk but he just kept going.

"If she just went ahead and canceled this whole shit I'd be jumping in happiness." Riser said. "There is no way I want to marry a spoiled princess that is the only sister of a siscon Lucifer AND heir to the Gremory's. And if I marry her my future line of descendants will all be Gremory first, Phoenix last as they need to keep their name and clan's honor." He then throws his hands in the air as if saying 'fuck it'. "I am the one being given here, a kept man so to say."

Devil's society is complicated as fuck.

"…have you finished with your outburst?" I asked. He's been saying the same for the last four years and it is almost always the same thing.

"Yeah. It is just hard you know. I am only the third son so nothing is really expected of me, besides being a breading tool for my race." He said tiredly. "Don't get me wrong, if it was some chick I loved I wouldn't mind marrying her, even if it was an arranged marriage. But she is just a NO, I lived my whole life in the shadow of my older brothers and I don't want to marry to live in the shadow of my wife as well."

He truly has it tough. In the end devil's society is an aristocratic one and, the lowest in the line of succession you are, the more you turn into a tool for the family.

"Do you have a plan to fix this situation?" I asked, thinking if there is any way to beneficiate from this (I blame Rin for my underhanded tactics and way of thinking).

"Maybe if she fully gave up and canceled the contract, which she would never do as it would ruin her house reputation." Devils and their contracts, *sigh* I swear that they are a race made of lawyers… maybe that is why they are usually associated with evil. "Or she could beat me in a Rating game, not that she'd manage that." He said rolling his eyes. He may not be older than Rias by much (just one-year older to be honest), but he trained hard since young and his peerage is nothing to scoff at. They are experienced and, while not particularly talented, train hard to get stronger for quite some time now.

Beating in a Rating game, huh. Interesting, this may actually work.

"Hey, would you be willing to work with me on a little plan that can help solve both our problems?" I said with a sweet and innocent smile (the same one Rin usually uses when planing questionable things).

Seeing my smile, he got shivers running down his back but he decided to listen to my plan. After hearing it he agreed to it, but if his hesitation in shaking my hand and the smile I was giving was any indication deciding who is the devil here is difficult.

* * *

 _OMAKE_

 _Why Castiel and a bar cannot mix_

After we made our deal, I and Riser decided to go to a bar on the machine department (the boss is a macho 'read pervert according to himself' dude that loves big guns, good drinks and good company). Getting there Riser asked a bottle of whiskey and I took some Cola.

"Hey, Cas." Already with his cheeks getting a bit redder than normal after his eight dose Riser decided to talk to me instead of watching the football game (by the way it was Barcelona x Chelsea and Barcelona was winning by one point)

"Yes, Riser what is it?"

"Why do you always drink Cola instead of something with alcohol? Those are for kids, real men drink alcohol." He said shaking his glass.

"Let's just say that I do not mix well with alcohol and leave it at that." I said trying to not focus on the subject. Bad stuff happens if I mix with alcohol after all.

"You should try some. It is quite good." He said, offering me some again.

"Sorry, I can't." I asked shortly, I honestly wouldn't dare to take a single drop of it.

Shaking his shoulder he said.

"Serve yourself." GLUP GLUP GLUP. "Ha, much better. Hey, how is your relationships going?"

"Well enough I guess. We talk by phone almost every day, or at least whenever they are not on missions, and when I come to the tower I generally spend my time with them. It is just that this time they needed to go on missions and I had my *tremble* training."

"Oh, good for you." He said, congratulating me for handling my harem well enough. "But you still can't compare to me." He pumped his chest to say. "You just got what four, five? I got a fucking 15 girls, my whole peerage is my harem."

"Wasn't your sister on your peerage too?" I said grossed out.

"Not for some time now. She went to my mother and I reincarnated a beauty in her place. Later I will introduce her to you." He said smugly. At least he is not an incestuous freak.

"Good for you." I tell him. "You can be just as much of a pervert as the one back in my school, but at least you are better." I say nodding my head.

"Oh, but in what I am better? To my knowledge, you do not like perverts in general and I am one." He asks as he doesn't quite understand my thought process.

"It is not that I hate perverts per-say, but I hate those that like to proclaim and talk much but do nothing to get a result. The same problem with Kiba, the Gremory knight, that likes to think he is amazing in swordplay while he does not train for long enough to actually get to be as good as he believes. The pervert is the same, he calls himself the _future harem king_ but never even held a girl's hand or asked one out. And he even keeps spying them changing and bragging about it in public, truly awful behavior."

"Wow, aren't you a bit harsh there?" he said while getting a bit away from me as I am showing how irritated I am with those two.

"Not too much. It is just that after going through so much training and ACTUALLY dating more than one girl at the same time seeing two dudes acting that way is not something I like. If they put honest effort in their objectives things would be much better, we might even be friends." I said what I belived. Being all talk is something I can't stand, if you want something put a honest effort and go do it.

I did that since I was young and all those that live here do it as well so it is not impossible.

Feeling the heavy mood Riser puthis hand on my shoulder and rised his cup.

"Hey cheer up. Have a drink and relax a little, today you don't need to think about this anymore so drink and relax." He said with a smile.

I took his offer and decided to take a slip of my coke, hum it burns a bit but it tastes good. The taste is a bit different from before but it probably does not mean anythi… wait, did he?

"Had you put some of your whisky on my cup?" I asked nervously.

"Yep. You are a man and should drink like one." He said as if it was obvious andeven giving a small laugh at the start.

I stood up and started to panic, this is not going to end up well.

"Hey, what is the problem? It is just one small dose, are you that bad with alcohol?" he said with a mix of concern and mostly smugness by thinking that I am being a kid.

"It is not that." I decided to explain, I know that we are both fucked so I may as well explain to him why. "When I was 12 a magic was put in me as to inform the caster when I drink any alcohol."

NOW he also started to sweat bullets. "And who the caster is in this case?"

Before I could open my mouth the room was almost eaten by pure darkness with many eyes and mouths on it. There were points that looked like a black blood was dropping and many points were if you were careful you could hear the sound of insects and scream of pure terror and pain. It was like a vision of the purest terror.

"I can't believe you. You may be sempai's son but I told you not to drink alcohol until you were at least 18." A sweat and elegant voice said. The door opened and a woman entered. She was in her early to mid-twenties (appearance wise) with long lavender hair, a decent sized bust, purple eyes and a gentle aura that did nothing to calm me down when the whole room seems like something straight out of a terror movie. "I must help raise you for sempai. Bad kids must be corrected after all." At that moment I remembered why it was a certainty that, despite there being so many others in the tower being capable of defeating her, Sakura Emiya (she abandoned her last name LONG ago) is still the number one in the 'do not aggravate' list.

* * *

 _How the Gremory peerage passed this weekend_

 _Kiba_

"From 8 to 11 of the morning training. And from 3 to 5 in the afternoon training some more." A smirk adorned his face. "I will definitely beat him after training hard like this, I am a genius after all."

* * *

 _Akeno_

"*sigh* Taking care of this whole temple is hard, maybe I will clean it tomorrow as I am tired from the week." Akeno said from her room in the old abandoned temple, she never did go out to clean it up. She simply took a magazine that had the name 'S&M and you'.

* * *

 _Koneko_

"I am hungry." A white-haired girl said in front of 10 family-size pizza boxes that were empty already "I want chinese next."

* * *

 _Rias_

"I am so glad the third season of Kuroshitsuji came out. And the new movie as well. I am so making a binge marathon this weekend." A red-haired girl in a poorly made disguise said almost skipping on her steps.

* * *

 _Issei_

FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP, FAP,

"I love you boobies" a lonely pervert said out loud.

.

.

.

Meanwhile in the living room.

"We are never getting grandkids, are we darling?" A woman asked

"Our better chance is if there is some girl desperate enough or we get another kid." A man said.

"BOOBIES!" a loud cry came from the other room.

"…"

"…"

"I will stop taking the pill, right now."

"The budget will get tight but it is our only hope."

"Where did we go wrong, darling?" the woman asked.

"I don't know but we will send Issei to college as soon as possible and make ABSOLUTE sure that we burn any and all pornography from this house." The man said decisively.

"Agreed."

* * *

 **Writer's Note**

 **I decided to show a different Riser in my fic. In my opinion, he acting like a chauvinistic pig may make sense, but if you think a bit more his actions did not make sense.**

 **He knows that Rias dislikes him but try to act in a way that she definitely disapproves. Also, their society is an aristocratic one with the possibility of a woman being in power just as well as men (Serafall is one of the Maou and is a woman after all) so she would still be the next head of the Gremory clan, while he would at most be a candidate for his clan, so he would be the presented one, not her.**

 **Also, imagine living with a woman that hates you and that has a brother that pampers her way too much, a brother that can eliminate you to the last cell in an instant. Not something to look forward to.**

 **And one last thing, I put a small explanation to the way of thinking of Castiel in there. This whole 'put effort into it', is what he admires and likes. He always liked people that truly put effort to reach their objectives, as can be seen by how fast he became friends with Okuyasu and how he likes Kuroko and Yuno despite their actions that are _a bit_ extreme.**


	14. Chapter 13

Castiel P.O.V.

"… and then we went to an ice cream shop. It was super interesting. It truly surprised me, the Tower is like a mix of a research institute, school, and city." Finally, he shut up. Okuyasu has been talking none stop since we left the Tower, which means about two fucking straight hours. He got all excited about his 'date but not a date' with Asia.

For one side I am happy for them as their relationship is cute in many ways; on the other side, he CAN be in a simple relationship with someone he likes and is innocent and especially GENTLE. My case in the other hand 'Let's go hunt strays in the name of JUSTICE' or 'Cas-kun I saw you talking to that woman on the store, would you like to explain yourself?' or even 'Hey, who is prettier Castiel? Me or my sister?'. Yep, I truly represent my origin VERY WELL.

"*sigh* Can we please stay quiet just for the next hour? I am beat, figuratively AND realistically and I want to rest a bit as after we get back we will need to go straight for school." I asked, feeling the sleepiness trying to take over me. I did not sleep at all since Friday night and it is Sunday night approaching Monday. I need to sleep.

"Fine, fine let's rest them." And he did stay quiet… "But honestly Asia-chan is an angel I tell you." For like 5 minutes. He just doesn't stop, does he? You know what? I will cast a basic curse of sleepiness AND mute on him. Sometimes my curses are so useful.

One-minute latter and after the curse took effect I finally could go to take a decent nap; I will need all the energy I can if I want my plan to make an alliance to actually work out.

* * *

Riser P.O.V.

This is the day. After meeting Castiel yesterday we made the best plan to fix OUR situation. Honestly, without his help, I doubt I'd get a better result.

"… so this is the plan, do you girls agree?" I finished explaining the pan to my peerage, the ones I truly want to spend the rest of my life with.

"Understood, Riser-sama!" all agreed. It will not be pleasant to them but it is the best way. We can either follow this plan and get a bad image, small as it may be, or I marry with Lucifer's little sister and we will live under the shadow of that siscon.

Now, I just need to inform Lucifer of my decision and the game may start.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

A tense silence covered the occult research club room. A message was just received that Rias fiancé was coming to visit. The tension was high as it was a well-established fact that Rias had no desire for this engagement contract to be fulfilled as she desired romance and to choose her partner, her species be damned (devil pun intended).

KNOCK KNOCK

"Kaichou, did we had a guest planned for today?" Akeno asked in doubt.

"No, no we did not Akeno." Rias answered. "Well, see who it is them." she hushed Akeno. Riser may arrive at any minute and she wants to deal with whoever it was before he got here.

"…Rias, it is Castiel." Akeno said and the mood got quite… well, strange one the room. Issei got even more annoyed, Kiba started to emit a battle thirst as he wanted to prove himself and Koneko just started sniffing around trying to sense if he had food.

"Tell him I will meet him again another day." She said dismissively.

"He said that it is official matters form the Tohsaka Tower."

That picked Rias interest. The Tower had state of the art magic research and training facilities, all that could be useful for her and her peerage. Unfortunately, the Tower and the Gremory clan are not allied anymore (mostly Syrzechs peerage fault). This is an important matter as it may mean a powerful ally or an enemy.

"Ask him to enter." Rias said.

Castiel entered in a different clothe than his school uniform (his fighting clothe that can also dub as formal wear, it is official matters after all) and immediately decided to give a polite bow and talk.

"I am sorry for coming unannounced but I come with an official proposal from my organization." Castiel said in a respectful but non-servile tone.

"Hoh, interesting. Please sit." Rias said pointing to the chair in front of her. After he sat down she asked. "Would you accept some tea?"

"That'd be lovely." He said with a smile.

After he took a slip he decided that he might as well start.

"I come here with a proposal of forming an alliance between our organizations." he said.

"That may be good, but what are the terms exactly?" Rias said. It was the wish of the rest of her clan to reestablish their old connection.

"Share of information." Good. "Military help in case of need." That is also good, the Tower may be a new organization but they are expanding fast and have capable fighters. With the tension between the three factions rising as they have a powerful ally is more than welcome. "BUT, some of the members of your brother's peerage must agree in signing a geass to not enter the Tower except if invited and they must make a public apology for their transgressions."

That is a problem.

"Sorry, but that is unacceptable. We of the Gremory house treat our servants as family and forcing our members to sign this sort of contracts is degrading to them." She negated the contract. "And what would be the reason for you to decide that they need to sign this geass of yours?"

"Because they are not, let's say, appreciated in the Tower."

"And for what reason?"

"Let's see. Okita comes to challenge Assassin almost every week, even when he is on a date with his girlfriend. I even heard that he once entered his room when he was, let's say busy, with his girlfriend. That got him pissed. Surtr came once to fight Lancer just to see who is stronger and ended up destroying half of the witchcraft division and Lancer's secret stash of booze, which made Lancer cry manly tears and pissed of the leader of the witchcraft division, Caster. Enku came and ate all the divine level food for Rider mounts that she took almost a full year to prepare. MacGregor decided to try and court Rin AND Luvia THREE DAYS after MY DAD DIED."

Rias was sweating after hearing this. To be honest, they _may be_ abused it a bit too much, but it wasn't that bad.

"But even then we can't just…"

"And last but not least" he continued not allowing her to interrupt. "Beowulf came and tried to steal one of my father last gifts to me because, and I quote, 'it is my own by right anyway so why not'."

That made the room enter a pregnant silence. No matter how much the Gremory family loved their servants there are limits that should not be trespassed and try to steal a father's memento 'just because' was too much.

But never underestimate a devil's pride.

"… I apologize for the inappropriate actions of my brother's peerage members but I still can't do what you request of me. Putting all members of his peerage on the black list by or own hand is not something I can or will do." She said firmly.

"First, it is not all members, and second, are you sure that there is no room for negotiations?" he asked in a still very polite and calm tone as if it did not make much of a difference anyway.

Just as Rias was about to answer two teleportation circles appeared in the room with the symbols of the Phoenix house and Gremory house.

"My beloved Rias I have come to see you again." A pompous person said stepping out of the Phoenix circle.

"I thought you were due to arrive in five minutes Riser, is this a demonstration that you have no intention of following the rules?" a woman dressed as a typical French maid with silver hair in a long braid, big bust, and a pretty face with red eyes (Writer's Note: I decided to go with red as it is the color in the novel, insted of using silver as in the anime. No real reason, I just preffer it this way) said as soon as she came out of the Gremory circle.

"Please do not misunderstand me. I came a bit earlier as I was a bit overly eager to see my wife." Riser said, completely ignoring the ugly face Rias did when she heard the 'my wife' comment. "I mean no disrespect to your house or you, Miss Grayfia Lucifuge the strongest queen." He said in a respectful bow… or the closest to respectful that someone using clothes that seem straight out of a 70's documentary about pimps and fashion.

The two arrivals then looked around the room, a cursory look… until they noticed Castiel.

The maid gave a polite bow and said.

"It is a pleasure meeting you again, Castiel-sama heir of the Tohsaka Tower. For what do we have the pleasure of your presence?" Grayfia may not have seen him in many years (since his father's funeral) but she could recognize his energy signature quite easily as he did not bother to hide his power.

"He came to propose terms for an alliance between the Tower and our family." Rias said without giving the chance of Castiel talk for himself.

"And the terms?"

"The same condition as to when the _LIVING BLADE_ was alive, but blocking by GEASS the entry of most of Onii-sama's peerage and a public apology."

Grayfia heard it and frowned.

"I am sorry but this terms cannot be followed as it would tarnish my husband Lucifer-sama name. Please leave." She said decisively.

"Oh well, I was even going to sweeten the deal by offering to train Rias peerage, thing that she obviously needs as anyone can see." Castiel said, no emotions in his voice but a slight disappointment.

"I need no help. It is not like you are that much stronger and my brother and his peerage can help in a much better way." Rias said with absolute confidence.

With a voice that most definitely did not have ridicule laced all over it (even though it had), Castiel said.

"Yeah… keep on doing that, it is working SO well. I mean it is not like most of you are wasting their talent. That everyone, excluding you and your queen, is still mid-class with that one ogling the wife of fucking Lucifer still being low-class." At that Issei looked the other way when the others turned to him. "I can't see why my offer would be good after all the world is peaceful and nothing can EVER go wrong. Let's not forget that your brother REALLY doesn't have any obligations for his race so he can spend ALL his precious time to help train you." a mocking smile adorning Castiel face. "Yeah no reason at all." *chuckles*

"Stop mocking my king, you bastard with no mother." Kiba said creating a sword on his hand. His knightly ways would not allow any form of offense to his king.

As soon as his words came out of his mouth Castiel appeared in front of him and put a finger to the middle of Kiba's forehead right between his eyes.

"I will tell you three things Knight-kun. First, mind your position, I came with an alliance proposal and YOUR answer was rising your sword to me, a fact that could be base for a war. Second, mind your abilities, you are too weak as, if I wanted to, I could kill you quite easily as you obviously only know frontal combats and do not have the necessary instincts for survival in the real world outside of this town." After that an aura of power that, while much weaker than Rias in absolute magic capacity, obviously was many times more threatening due to the killing intent mixed on it. "Third, NEVER talk about me or my family like that again or I WILL kill you. Lucifer protecting you or not."

After that little demonstration of speed that only Grayfia and Riser could follow Castiel turned his back and left the room with one last message.

"Think about my proposal Rias, it seems that you will need my help for the future if this is how your peerage react to danger." He then turned to Riser and said. "Oh, and Riser nice seeing you, but honestly… pimp much?"

"Ha, I am amazing like this and you know it." Riser said in a haughty voice with a short laugh at the end.

Castiel just gave a short laugh at his Riser's answer as well and left the room.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

That was exhausting. The more I interact with Rias the more I see how sheltered and self-centered she is, I mean, she obviously isn't training herself OR her peerage to decent standards considering their potential. And she obviously is not trained in how to act in a political setting, I mean I just entered and displayed the wish to make an alliance and all I truly requested was an apology and a small compromise but she refused without even trying to negotiate. I would fear for her house a lot more if I didn't know that she will probably not even touch the position of head of the household until she is a few thousand years old.

Now I can either wait for Riser message about how his part of the deal went down OR go to Sona make a proposition of alliance with her house. To be blunt the only reason we are not in any sort of alliance, besides the non-aggression pact, is that Rin and Luvia do not want to deal with the self-proclaimed magical girl Serafall Leviathan. I mean, we are not even at this level of the alliance now and she already invades their rooms once just to put Rin and Luvia in embarrassing Mahou Shoujo outfits.

Those pictures are still on the internet, thank god(s) that neither understand how the internet works or we may have started a war already.

Oh well, I may as well go home and take a bath. It would not be good if I am called by either Riser or Rias while in the middle of talks with Sona so I will let to talk with her after this whole thing is concluded.

* * *

Castiel Home

"Why are you here?" I asked trying to not kick this idiot out of my home.

"What, we are buddies so why not?" Okuyasu said playing on MINE PS4.

"I get it but I was talking to him." I glared at the other idiot.

"I needed to recharge after having to deal with Rias and all those political talks." Riser said without even turning to me. He was playing with Okuyasu a fighting game and getting his ass kicked, I never really understood how someone from the Phoenix house likes to use just sub-zero. Riser could at least be good but honestly, he is far FAR from pro-level, at best he is a good casual.

"Ha, got you there. Achachachacha." Okuyasu laughed as he got a bicycle kick with his Liu Kang and killed Riser.

"Tch, one more time. I refuse to leave the game as the loser." Riser said with losers-rage. He has always been a sore loser when in games.

"So you will be staying here for a long time hahaha." Okuyasu said with a laugh. Playing games do have this effect, after all, a bit gloating when you win is normal.

"Can we please come back to the important matter at hand? I still need to know how the meeting went down after I left." I said getting tired of these two ignoring me (not that I can say much, last time I decided to play 'a bit' of dark souls I went 20 hours straight and did not even notice my hunger).

"Fine." Riser said turning to me with a tired sigh. "It was almost like we planned. I acted like the biggest jerk I could think of, even sprouting all that shit about pure-blood. All her peerage was wanting to kill me and did not restrain in their killing intent at all, which means jack shit for me as I did have to train once with Lancer in one of my visits. He still scares me like all hells." He said with a shiver running down his spine. "She started spouting nonsense about she being her own woman and she is mature enough to decide what is best for her and her house" at that I rolled my eyes, idiots will be idiots and Rias will be Rias… if there is a difference it remains to be seen. She really has a lot to learn. "she told me to cancel the contract. I refused as it would tarnish the honor of my house. We glared at each other. Grayfia came and proposed we do a rating game in two weeks to decide what will happen. I showed my peerage just to put pressure on her and her pawn started drooling at them. I provoked Rias a bit saying as I will win and am anxious for our wedding where I will make her mine. The pervert" I glared at him. ", that was not me this time, shouted that he will not allow it to happen as he will take Rias for his harem." At that, the three of us rolled our eyes. "I asked Mira to give him a lesson and she kicked his ass."

"And the more important part?" I asked as this is the more important.

"Of course it went just as planned. I requested that during this period for Rias to not be allowed to enter in contact with her brother or his peerage after today, as it would be Syrzechs that will prepare the stage and it would be an unfair arrangement if she received any more help from him." He smirked just as well as me. We both knew that it was a load of bullshit and that Syrzechs could not really give her more advantages, but calling it out like that guarantees that she will not be capable of requesting his help for training.

Now all I need to do is wait. Nothing motivates people quite like their freedom, after all.

"After this match lets go with Super Mario Cart. I want to play too!" I said

""You going to lose."" They both said at the same time with cocky smiles, I could only smile back.

* * *

Omake

Asia's day in the Tower

Asia's P.O.V.

Thank you lord for all your blessings. I am so happy here. There is always something to do and everyone is so nice.

RRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"What happened? Why did the whole tower shaken a bit just now?" I asked nervously to one of the Sisters. I mean the whole Tower started shaking, that cannot be normal.

"Oh, that? It is just that Sairaorg-sama came a bit earlier than expected and Illya-sama asked Berserker to accompany him out. Misaka explained as if it was just like any other day."

"B-but why is the Tower trembling?" I asked nervously

"Because Sairaorg-sama decided to bring his pet with him this time. Misaka explained tired of being asked silly questions."

"What pet?"

* * *

On the outside

"CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTYYYYY!" Was all Berserker was roaring while trampling everything on his personal mission of getting the kit cat that he saw.

"Stop it Berserker-sensei! The Nemea Lion is not a catty" Sairaorg screamed trying to stop his 'sensei' that completely disregarded him.

And so a Longinus that reincarnated as a devil learned the meaning of fear, and it was-

"CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Berserker after you. That is pure terror.

* * *

"It is just his pet, Berserker-sama just wants to play catch with him. Misaka says trying not to laugh at what is happening."

Oh, it is just Berserker-san trying to play with a pet. Then it is fine, after all, how violent can he be?

* * *

 **Writer's Note**

 **I am sorry if I offended someone with this chapter, it simply was the best way to show why the Tower was no longer allied with the Gremory clan despite the fact that freaking Lucifer is a part of that clan. Also, I will point out that Castiel only has 4 weapons that his father made for him, a memento of sorts, so he considers them absurdly important.**

 **Also, for those of you that did not understand the Omake, I must point out that the Nemea Lion(the spirit inside the Longinus) was originally a best killed by Heracles. It is greek history.**

 **Any comments and ideas are welcome, but please don't send me messages just to bash me or my story. I will not stop it anytime soon so you are just making me feel bad and nothing more. If you do that for the pleasure so my only answer would be FUCK YOU.**


	15. Chapter 14

Castiel P.O.V.

ORC clubroom

"So, I'd like to know if those terms from yesterday are still valid." The head headed heiress said. Isn't it great when a plan happens as you planned? I still think it was brilliant.

* * *

Two days ago, meeting with Riser.

"And what is your idea?" Riser asked a bit intrigued.

"Simple, I need to make an alliance with the Gremory's house and you need to get rid of a disadvantageous contract with them. I will offer them training in exchange for the alliance while you make it so that a rating game happens. If everything goes well, we will both have what we want."

"…That won't work. You know as well as me that this last minute training will not breach the distance that exists between our peerages, hers spend most of their time in school playing as humans while mine trains and help in hunting strays and other treats with the guys here. The difference is just too big in a serious setting." He said shaking his head dejectedly.

"No problem. You just need to order them to lose in a convincing way, I will make sure that her peerage is on a level that it is believable for them to face yours." I explained. "In the end, they have considerable magic reserves, the main problem is the lack of finesse in the control AND experience in actual fighting scenarios."

"That is all good and all but how are they going to beat me? I mean, I am a Phoenix, just hitting me will not be enough and I had some survival training here once. Nothing they do will break my will as well, I went once in a survival training *shudders* so I will not fall that easily."

"And they don't have to truly beat you." That got him curious "You just need to force her into a corner, and when she keeps saying that she refuses to marry you, you'll give up as you want to respect her and her house even if the respect in question is not equal." That took him a moment to understand and after he started smiling happily.

"Let me see if I got this. I will give up in respect of her house while she defiles mine so her house will need to make amends to mine as is good. I like this, I really do. Let's do it." He said it all with a large grin on his face. "But how we will do it exactly?"

"That is simple, all we need is…"

* * *

Present

I am so glad it all ends up well. Now all I will need is see what is her decision exactly.

"Mostly, but as I was so rudely shoved away I'd like to make an addition to the previous agreement." I am so glad that I managed to pull the timing so well yesterday. If it wasn't for the ideal timing for Riser arrival she would have discussed with me more and the terms would be much better for her, now she is desperate and I can take some advantage of that.

A tick mark appears on her forehead. "And what addition would that be?"

"Simple really, I want DNA samples from all your peerage and you as well. Just an ampoule of blood would do just fine." I said as if natural. Blood of supernatural beings is extremely interesting as a subject of study back at the Tower and if I got some from a member the Gremory family, of the daughter of Baraquiel and from the rest of the peerage it may help in getting me on the good graces of Rin again and not having any more survival training. I still feel my bones are not quite right again after being used as a substitute of Berserker's ax-sword in his fight against a mountain (thank god for the fact that my combat clothes are so resilient to blunt attacks).

"Unacceptable. Who knows what you guys in the Tower could do with it? Maybe you could even replicate the power of destruction (writer note: I will call it POD as saying the full name is too troublesome) or some other thing like that." Rias said, she probably does not want this at all. I guess I can mess around with her a bit; it will probably work… maybe… probably not but the chance is just too good to pass up.

"Well, you can choose them: you prefer to lose some blood to a syringe or for Riser's 'mini-me'?"

* * *

Somewhere in the underworld

"IT IS NOT MINI." A blond man dressed as a wannabe pimp suddenly shouted in the middle of the street.

"W-what happened Onii-sama?" a blond girl with an elegant dress asked her brother.

"I don't know, but I feel like I need to punch Castiel the next time I see him." the blond man said.

* * *

Rias face is so funny right now. It is a mix of dread, hate, and embarrassment. It even changes colors between as red as her hair to as white as paper… I should have had a camera.

"…fine, I accept the deal." Good, good it was just as planned. "But I want to add a little something to the contract as well."

"And what it would be?" let's see if she got any talent for politics.

"I want you to sign a geass in which, in case I lose in my game against Riser, my brother peerage members will not have to be banished from the Tower anymore." She said. It must truly be a sore point for her family to see some members being banished from there. I suppose I can make this 'consent'.

"Only if you add that they must behave as with the necessary respect." I said in a counter which she nods her head. An evil grin almost appeared on my face just now as, even if she loses (which will not happen as Riser will lose on purpose anyway), the definition of what 'necessary respect' means is quite broad, ample space for debate of what the necessary is. 'Clever wording is the base of any deal' or so Rin taught me many years ago.

"Deal." She said making a contract between both of us. It will need to be signed again by the current heads but just the agreement of both of us already is plenty for now as if either of the sides back down now it will ruin the image of the one backing down. "Now when does the training may start?" she asks with a bit of desperation in her voice.

"Let's start it today in the woods on the outskirts of town. I will help you today to see what we must work with and tomorrow we will go to a special location for a more specialized training."

"Fine by me. I will be there in about 1 hour as I must inform my peerage."

We shake hands and each goes to resolve what is necessary. I took my phone and start making some calls, I need help from some of the guys in Judgment for this as the regular trainer will not be capable of doing it in such short time. Shock therapy is what is needed here after all.

* * *

One-hour latter

On the woods

I got here five minutes ago after talking with some of the guys back on Judgment, I even got them to agree to help during this entire time. I can barely wait as I haven't seen some of them in quite some time.

"Hello, Castiel-kun." Rias said after getting here by teleportation circle. There is also Akeno, Kiba, Issei and… a box?

"Rias, why did you bring a box for training? Are you thinking about becoming some mailmen later in life?" I asked with a mix of doubt and sarcasm.

After I said that everyone else was sort of embarrassed about it.

"Nothing of the sort, this is Gasper my bishop. Took my 2 pieces so I only have him but unfortunately, he has fear of the outside world so he prefers to stay indoors or inside a box." She said tiredly.

"Hum, and you let him stay like this why exactly?"

"He prefers this way and nothing I do can help him give him the courage to face the world."

"*sigh* Fine I will deal with this situation myself." I said in an irritated tone. I mean how can someone call themselves king and don't know how to help their people? She should focus all her power in finding a way to help those who serve her instead of focusing on the school like she does, is there any meaning in being famous among the school when she let her followers suffer?

"And how do you intend on doing this?" Akeno asked after she finished checking if Emily was here or not. Obviously, I asked her to not get involved, as her specialties (fast flying and use of her pike/lance and light energy) do not match with the ones from Rias peerage… and she'd hit heads with Akeno more than actually help in this situation.

"Simple. Like this **lion's heart**." This is a simple blessing that I learned long ago. The effect is simple but important every once in a while, the effect is to give courage to the target. Useful when facing bad odds as courage itself can help surmount many difficulties.

"I can do it!" a small 'girl' jumped out of the box. This little one seems to be about 14 years old, have white pale skin and blond almost white hair (almost like mine but in my case it is more like my hair could not decide if it preferred white or blond so it compromised and in 'her's' case it is closer to white) and also have pointed teeth. Is it a vampire? If so it can turn up bad as the Tower have a high enmity with vampires as a whole since some time now.

"Didn't you said it was a boy? Why is it that all I see is a girl?" I asked.

"Well… it is my hobby. I like to dress up as a girl as this clothes are cuter." Gasper said.

"Okay them." I said as if it was not a big deal, and it really is not. Sexual orientation is important for only the individual and it is not my place to judge if he is homosexual, metrosexual, Okama (travesty) or whatever else. The person itself is the important, not their sexual preferences.

"Seriously, that is it?" Issei asked with a surprised face. "He dresses like a girl as a hobby and that is your whole reaction." The idiot did not seem to have noticed that little (I will say little because he looks like a twelve years child) Gasper is feeling down about what he says. It probably troubles him when others treat him different because of his choice.

"Yes, that is all my reaction to it. He can dress and do whatever he wants as long as it does not prejudice the ones around him." I said as if natural. "And you should watch what you say because it can come out as offensive to him." I said with a light glare and a bit of killing intent. On my shitlist of things that annoy me to no end' acting differently towards another based on sexual preference is right there on the top 10.

(Writer Note: I am taking writer liberty on this one as it really annoyed me that when Issei met Gasper for the first time he acted like a jerk on their first meeting. With time he gets better and even becomes friends but right on the start he did act like this a bit and in my fic, this is pretty much the first time Issei met Gasper so I put it like this. THIS IS NOT ME BASHING ISSEI, I BARELY BASHED FOR REL ANYONE FOR THAT MATTER AS IF I WANTED TO IT WOULD BE MANY, MANY TIMES WORST THAN THIS.)

GULP

"U-understood." Issei said with a nervous voice.

CLAP

I gave a light clap of my hand to call for attention from the rest of those here.

"Now let us begin." I said entering an instructor mode. "I am here to help you, people, to get in shape to be capable of fighting Riser's peerage. We will go to this address" I gave Rias an address of a remote location in a faraway mountain. There exists an extra center of training from the Tower, specialized in group trainings and with many different rooms with different characteristics that will work out just fine. " But first things first, I need to know what are your specialties and your nature and element affinity for future magic training."

Kiba raised his hand.

"Ye, Kiba?"

"I have no idea on what my nature and element is. What even is nature and element affinity anyway?" He said with a straight face.

I facepalmed. Seriously?

"Okay, who else here does not know what element affinity and nature is?"

I wanted to hit something (probably Rias for being negligent) when I saw that all of the except Rias and Akeno did not know what element affinity and nature are.

"Element affinity helps you realize which element or type of magic you will have the easier to learn. For instance, if you have **water** affinity you can learn a water-based spell in a tenth of the time that someone else would normally, but it also limits you in other areas like if you have _fire_ affinity you will find next to impossible to be a master in water magic." Seeing that they are accompanying I continued. "Nature is a special characteristic that helps define you as a person. For instance, if you have for nature **burst** your explosive spells will be stronger but it also means that you are prone to have a short temper."

(Writer's note 2: I hope this is more or less what Elemental affinity and Nature are. This is the best explanation I got, but if I am wrong I would gladly correct myself if someone can explain what those two are more precisely)

"Oh." They all seemed to understand what I am saying.

"So how do we discover our element affinity and nature?" Issei asked.

"There is a mystic code made. Unfortunaly I do not have one at hand as I believed that you guys would know at least this much." I turned to Rias. "And that begs the question, how can you as their king do not have explained them this sort of thing before? It would make training in magic much easier."

"Well… to be fair I never saw the need to. Kiba was totally uninterested in magic as a whole, Koneko also preferred to fight in CQC and Gasper never even want to fight period."

"And about Issei?" I asked trying to not explode to the idiocy I am hearing.

"He didn't have much magic, to begin with so I decided to train him in magic when he grows more powerful." She said with a confident voice but when she looked at the smile I was giving her she shut up.

"And how exactly are you training him to be more powerful?"

"A light 2km jog every morning and making contracts… even if he did not manage to make a perfect one even once."

I turned to Issei after hearing it. "Issei, now I understand why you are so pathetically weak for a devil that reincarnated for so long," he made an offended face hearing that. "it was because you were never beaten into the proper shape. I am sorry for calling you negligent and weak before and to correct my previous mistake I will make sure that you become the devil you SHOULD be right now with the help of this training." I am feeling sorta like a jerk right now. It was not his fault as, in the end, he just never got the proper training. I will fix that.

His paling face makes me think that maybe he did not like where this talk was going.

FLASH

… don't judge me, it is just one picture of him. If I sell this I may get some cash that I most definitely need it as Rin cut my paycheck since the fallen angel incident. I need to eat as well.

"Now coming back to what we were talking before. So I will let the details about what your nature and element affinity for tomorrow. For today we will make something different and see what you guys can do with your familiars. They are, after all, an important part of you fighting capacities and can help in battle when necessary." I then pointed to the side and two magic circles appeared. "These little ones are my familiars." I said as my familiars appeared.

The first one looks like a small brown dog. He has lustrous hair, big brown eyes pointed ears and on his chest, there is a big amount of fur that looks (and is) comfy. He also has a collar with many different stones on his neck.

The second one looks like a small 'child' with a star-shaped yellow hat that has small blue papers on the points, a happy symbol on his belly and two golden clothes coming out of his back. He is but naked but as he is genderless and is not human in the first place he never wanted or accepted to use any clothing.

The third and fourth one are twins. They both look like a piece of the starry sky surrounded by a golden circle keeping it in place.

They are my pride and joy, I have them since I was 7 when I got them in eggs given to me by that damned vampire, A.K.A. grandpa Zelretch, that came to visit at my birthday. He always comes as he is my godfather, and every once in a while give me some strange item from some other dimension.

The last one was a box that when I opened the more powerful stink bomb ever made by mankind exploded on my face… I was removed from the Tower and throw in the middle of the sea until I stopped smelling like the bastard child of a rotten fish and a public bathroom after a music festival... it took a whole month. Good part though is that I got friends with some of the Fishman.

"These are my familiars. This one that looks like a dog is called Eevee and can change attributes and characteristics at will thanks to his unstable genes and the use of this collar right here. This one that looks like a child is called Jirachi, he can grant absurdly high lucky for short intervals, can use power from the stars to make barriers and create illusions and control gravity in a limited extent." It is better not to overly explain what combat oriented abilities they have. It would take too long and it is always better to have an ace on the sleeve. "And finally we have the twins Cosmoem, they can only help in teleportation and help raise the natural magic defense.

And yours, what do they do?"

They look impressed and ashamed at the same time.

"This is my familiar." Rias said summoning forth a red bat. "It can change to look like a human."

"And…" I said wanting more intel, if I am to help them on how to use the familiars I need more than just this.

"And that is it." She said dejectedly. "She helps me in distributing the summoning circles. All our familiars do just that, we never really trained them for battle situations the most they can do is set some minor traps and alarms. Issei and Gasper don't even have familiars yet."

Breath Castiel, you need to take a deep breath to not try and punch something out of frustration.

"*sigh* you guys really need help. Start a special training now for your familiars would be useless as from tomorrow onwards you will be having personal training and we will not be capable of allocating time for it." I said dejectedly. It must have been nice, growing up in an environment that allowed Rias and her peerage to be so laid back in training. No dangerous training sessions or hunting strays for days on end without rest. They truly are blessed (not that I can say much as for some time now I have been lax too, but when you got your first actual vacation in 10 years you will want to enjoy it). "Let's just do some basic physical training them. Eevee, go to Flareon mode and use **heat wave** , Jirachi, use **gravity** in the area."

The red stone in Eevee collar shined bright and Eevee shined in a white light that rapidly turned red colored and when the color receded he was different. He had a red coloration and even if his general form was the same the fur now was made of flames that he can control the heat of and the 'fur' on his chest, tail, and top of his head is white colored and much hotter than the rest.

With the effect of **heat wave** , the temperature raised to a hundred degrees Celsius and with **gravity** the, well gravity, raised 3 folds.

The devils looked really disturbed and uncomfortable. It could have been much worst, but thanks to they unconsciously using magic to circulate a small protection for them, even if imperfect and it helps to push their bodies a bit. To me for this heat is nothing special since I was put into training in much higher temperatures to learn how to better deal with fire; the gravity means even less as I had to train a lot in high gravity environments before (I blame Dragon Ball and Lancer for being impressionable).

"We will do 10 series, nothing much as it is just a good way to relax a bit." I explained.

"Ten series of what exactly?" Gasper said clearly being the more uncomfortable.

"Good that you asked." I gave him and the others a smile full of benevolence. "It will be simple, a hundred push-ups, a hundred sit-ups, and ten kilometers run in this clearing. If it worked for Saitama in one punch man it will work for you."

* * *

Omake

How Emily is spending her time

"This is the life. No responsibilities and all TV and snacks I can handle, this is heaven." Emily says while lazing around in her room that got so messy in one afternoon that most would question how long did she actually take to get her room this bad.

In heaven an angel with long golden was trying not to go down to the earth to admonish a girl for comparing that mess with heaven itself... of to just clean the room. He was torn between admonishing the mistakes of others and just helping them in the first place. And that is how both Emily in her little heaven and Michael in heave passed this time.


	16. Chapter 15

Rias P.O.V.

I *pant* hate *pant* the 'me' *pant* of a few hours ago.

"Faster, move those legs that you are so proud of princess" with a maniacal glee on his eyes the devil (he must be on the inside) that I made a contract said caring a shinai that exuded a disturbing bloodlust and swinging it at anyone that slacked off for more than a second.

Not only that but this exercise is pure torture, I feel like I am burning with this temperature and the gravity makes any movement be a challenge in and of itself. Issei practically passed out in the third series, Kiba lasted until the fourth and Gasper lasted to the second.

I am almost down to the count and it is only the seventh series, Akeno is faring a bit better and Koneko is quite bad as well even if better than me. I hope this training works and honestly am scared of what tomorrow onwards will be like if this is what a sample is like.

It still is better than marring Riser… but not by a lot.

* * *

One-hour latter

Castiel P.O.V.

So this is how much they can handle for now, huh. Issei can go for three series, Gasper for two, Kiba for four, Akeno and Rias for 8 (they are high level for a reason after all, even if they do not focus as much as they should in the corporeal resistance) and Koneko managed to finish the 10 I requested.

From my observations Issei has close to zero control over his magic and insufficient training;

Gasper also did not receive the proper training and did not seem to use any of his vampiric characteristics such as drinking some blood to get his energy back to appropriate levels, if he did not do it because he did not have any at hand or because he simply refuses remains to be seen;

Kiba has a decent body constitution but close to zero actual capacity on magic (probably due to not training on it) and has serious stamina issues (most likely for training with the assumption of quick fights);

Akeno seems to not be used to use the strength and speed of her queen piece, a mistake many queens make as it can give her an edge in a moment of need but the work necessary to evolve in all aspects is not small;

Rias seems to have let her body develop naturally as many devil heirs prefer, it is a painless method and will wield results with time (a long time), the problem is that as a pure-blood her body can evolve and get stronger much faster than most others can dream of, but a focus in magic and 'playing as a school idol' seem to occupy all her time letting her potential remain as mere potential at the moment;

Koneko is the most troubling, she obviously has physical training and magic control in an appropriate levels but the refusal of her heritage makes her limited as she does not use any of her instincts or Yokai energy preferring only the devil side of her powers, if she keeps on this path her potential for growth will be ruined.

This work will be difficult but not impossible as I must make them strong enough to at least grow in an actual fighting force and not just some hormonal problem teenagers with super-powers (basically change them from teen titans to justice league material). I know I should not be smiling, but knowing someone else will go through what I did for so long makes me so evilly happy.

* * *

Next morning

Castiel P.O.V.

We got here on the training center and it is still just as beautiful as I remember it to be. A chain of 7 mountains with a lot of trees growing and flowers all around, there are many houses, each one with different objectives such as gravity rooms, high mana rooms, different test sites for different elements and some rooms that are simply sturdy enough to take a few hits even from Berserker without cracking.

The devils came with me and are, at the same time, sending hateful glances at me as they try to catch their breath.

After they passed out yesterday I decided to be 'gentle' and let them have a bath (they were sticking a bit due to sweat). I even used my Eevee Vaporeon's mode **hydro pump** to clean them well, so I wonder why when they got up they decided complained to me about my treatment of them. Rias even started gathering her POD in her hand to make my refreshing smile disappear.

I am happy that my Cosmoems teleported me out of there. Devils get some boost depending on their emotions, and their rage was quite big.

Still worth it.

As we approach our destination I see two of the guys I asked to come here.

"Hey guys, how are you doing?" I asked with a smile on my face. Being with those you trust you and you trust back is awesome.

"Ka Ka, all fine here. Just got here a few minutes ago myself and was talking with him about the last mission. Battling it out with a child Titan is fun." This is Bikou, a battle maniac and descendent of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven also known as Son Goku (not the DBZ Goku, Son Goku does not like the anime Goku as, according to himself, he is 'much more amazing and awesome', which is not true by the way).

Bilou is a monkey Yokai and has the appearance of a 20 years old man with short black hair and very defined muscles. He uses an armor like the ones from the Romance of the three Kingdoms, it covers his torso with a red armor, shoulder protectors made of steel that moves together with his arms in a way that does not impede in his movements in any way, black armguards that goes from elbows to the hands, black pants with armor on the sides of his thighs and knees, and last but not least a 'tiara', so to say, modeled after Son Goku's accessory to make him look 'more dashing' according to him.

"Yes, it was most entertaining indeed. You should have been there. That Titan kept regenerating, some of those curses of yours would have been useful." With an elegant air around him, the other disciple of Saber, Arthur Pendragon declared. He is the heir of the Pendragon family that hails from King Arthur himself (or at least this world king Arthur), and as Bikou he is also a complete battle maniac (even if his appearance most times does not indicate the craziness in him). He wears a business blue suit that would fit a butler to a tee with a necktie with a golden pin, he has golden hair with a braid and a large strand of hair across his hair and uses glasses.

"Yeah... I'd rather not. You guys are the battle junkies, not me." I gave them a smile, I fought beside those two quite a few. They are eccentric but friends nonetheless. "And the others, are they here yet?"

"Not all of them. Yuno, Seryu, the twins, Kuroko, the director and the demon" when he referred to the last one he gave a scowl, he must still be mad about the time when she took his underwear with bananas all over them and showed to EVERYONE "will be getting here later. It is something about looking their best, I wonder for who some of them are doing that?" Bikou said with a mocking laugh in the end. He always found my relationship with women to be funny.

Damn him and his good normal relationship.

I turned to the devils that were analyzing the new arrivals.

"These are my friends from Judgment: Bikou and Arthur. They will help in the personal trainings to some of you guys." I then turned to my old friends. "These are the devils from the Gremory house, treat them well during this training." I said and they looked a bit annoyed on this mission of theirs (less time looking for a good fight). So I decided to give them an extra obligation in a very, very low voice. "You can try and see if you can do best than the teachers back in the Tower." I gave a smile as bright as the ones they gave at that comment.

For some reason, the devils seemed to be afraid of us.

* * *

In one of the rooms

After the introductions were made we make way to a room where the device to detect and show the elemental affinity and nature of someone can be shown.

The device may sound amazing, but it looks just like a small box with a hole where you put our hands on. It even comes with a special characteristic of counting the number and quality of the magical circuits (mystic codes for the win).

"As I said we will go through the test that determinate the elemental affinity and nature of someone. Also as we got this special mystic code for us it will even count and qualify your magical circuits. Are there any last minute questions?" Issei raised his hand "Yes, Issei?"

"What are magical circuits?" He asked. I was not surprised by this question this time, I expect him to not know of what he SHOULD know by this point as he was reincarnated a few months ago.

"They are a pseudo-nervous system that runs through the body of anyone with supernatural abilities. They are where the magical energy of the body is produced and utilized.

They are directly connected to the soul and the ones that may be found in the body are just a small part of the whole, but this part is of extreme importance.

The number of them is invariable from birth, which means that if you are born with 12 you will die with twelve no matter how hard you may train. The quality, on the other hand, defines how much mana you can store and how much you can liberate at once, and the quality of the circuits can be enhanced with time." I explained in the simplest terms I could think of. Rin or Luvia would give a 3 hours lecture about them and still think it insufficient. "As devils the longer you live the more the quality of the circuits rises, thus explaining why older devils are usually stronger and why their society was divided into classes from birth.

A devil from one of the high-class families has a natural high number of circuits and with time they only get stronger and the disparity will get greater and greater."

"Oh." Not only Issei, but all devils seemed to find my explanation surprising.

"Now, are there any other questions?" Issei raised his hand… again. "*sigh* Yes Issei?"

"You talk a lot about those things but what are yours? I mean you will know ours so it is only fair." He asked. Normally it would be an improper question as it would give them an advantage in case we were to ever fight, but I doubt that will happen. Also, it really is fair for them to know mine in this case as I will be knowing theirs.

"Fair enough. I am surprised that you were the only one to think that, and to answer your question my elemental affinity is **curses and blessings** and my nature is **leadership** and **curses**. That is why I say that I am king and like to have control, even if the girls around me really take control more often than not, and it also makes me more prone to finesse control of my powers instead of going to large destruction strikes.

In the question of mere magic capacity, I am just about high mid-class but with my techniques and control, I am a natural match for most high high-class. I can even battle some low ultimate-class depending on the match-up.

And about my magical circuits, I have 250, but they are all of the most terrible quality and they evolve much to slow. It is even a joke in the Tower as I have the greatest number of circuits there but the worst quality at the same time. Other reason why I don't have any highly destructive, or of high output, magic attacks." I explained revealing one of my 'weaknesses'.

"Oh, I get it… I think." Issei said sheepishly.

"*sigh* Let's just get this over with. Issei, as you were the last one to open your mouth you may as well come first." I said. It did not make much of a difference in the long run as all of them are going to test it anyway.

As he put his hand in the box with a nervous and expecting face some data came out. I take it and start to read it

"Let's see your elemental affinity is mostly **imagination** and **fire**. You would have difficulty with most common spells but you could create original ones ignoring most part of the process others would have to take to get a similar result. An interesting combination with a lot of potential, IF you work hard on it." I said with a slightly impressed tone. "You have 30 circuits of normal capacity, but considering your sacred gear you can probably **boost** them for a short time using its capacity. Now for nature… pervert."

"Hey, you didn't need to call me that in this sort of moments." Issei said frustrated as he most likely wanted to know if he was 'OP'.

"I meant what I said. Your nature is **pervert**." I face-palmed together with most people in the room. "I honestly can't imagine how you can make any good use of this, I can only tell you one thing." I liberate the bloodlust I accumulated from all those missions where it was hunt or be hunted, kill or be killed. "Try ANYTHING to any of the girls that will be coming here later and you WILL die, allies be damned."

I took a deep breath to calm down before calling the others for their tests. The results were interesting:

-Kiba (elemental affinity = **steel** ) (nature = **cut** ) (number of circuits = **23** )

-Gasper (elemental affinity = **shadow** ) (nature = **void** ) (number of circuits = **113** )

-Koneko (elemental affinity = **monster** ) (nature = **wild** ) (number of circuits = **78** )

-Akeno (elemental affinity = **lightning** and **wind** ) (nature = **tempest** ) (number of circuits = **145** )

-Rias (elemental affinity = **destruction** ) (nature = **explosive** ) (number of circuits = **134** )

Well, they definitely can get strong. With the exception or Kiba and Issei, all of them have a great number of circuits, as it is to be expected. They were of supernatural heritage from the start so having a lot of circuits is normal.

What is disappointing is that all their circuits are just average, with only Rias having above average at the moment.

Something explainable from the fact that they did not train in how to fortify their circuits so as to make them higher quality because, as devils, it can happens automatically with time.

I felt an energy approach.

It seems like the girls finally arrived. Let's go and see them so as to get this party started.

"Hey, come and meet the others, some of them will be your teachers very so-" "ONII-SAMA!" I didn't even finish and this koala woman already is glued to me, feeling me up in all possible ways while panting.

"*pant**pant* You are so full of muscles Onii-sama. I just want to eat you up, scratch that eat me up. Here, now. Come one. *pant* *pant*"

Karate chop

"Uuuhh, it hurts Onii-sama. Give me a kiss on the head to make it better… followed by kisses on my mouth and everywhere else. *pant* *pant*"

"*sigh* Guys," I directed myself to the devils that are surprised for this

little pervert reactions… excep fort Issei that is looking at me with pure envy on his eyes. I can even hear he saying very quietly 'This is so unfair, why is he with a loli? I know let's go for Koneko, she is also pretty.' thinking that no one is listening but Koneko's fists clenching says otherwise. "This one here is one of my childhood friends. Her name is Kuroko Fraga and she, despite her age, is very strong. She will help you all on how to better use teleportation."

Rias was about to introduce herself and the others when the door opened and most of the girls came in with most of them giving me a hug. Issei's eyes started to drip blood tears seeing this… I must buy a camera, no other way around it.

"Castiel-kun I missed you, did you miss me?" with eyes that were sparkling when she started talking but by the end are almost a representation of death in case the answer is bad, Yuno talked to me.

"Y-yes Yuno-chan you know I miss you. I like you after all." I said trying to be smooth as I know that she can 'overreact' a bit too much if I say the wrong thing.

"Oh, I love you too." And she started to hug me even harder and send death glares to all other girls around me. Her glare at my other girlfriends was a mix of gloating and challenge.

Another pair of arms, mechanical ones, caught my neck and turned me to the side with a smiling face of another one of my girlfriends.

"I missed you Castiel-san."

"And I missed you Seryu." I gave her a peck on the lips, suddenly a fur ball jumped on top of her head. "And also you Koro."

The twins were next, as they detached me from a pouting Yuno and a disappointed Seryu, with a Koro showing way more ferocious teeth that his appearance entails.

"My servant, had you been well during your time in Tartarus while waiting for your reunion with me?" the first of the twins asked

"Question. Had you missed me as well?" the other twin followed

"I obviously missed you two, Yuzuru, Kaguya." I went ahead and, before they could say anything else, embraced both of them in a firm, but comfortable hug.

The mood was good as both of them I was about to kiss the two of them, but a dense idiot THAT CAN'T READ THE MOOD IF IT HITS HIM IN THE HEAD WITH A SIGN decided to open his big mouth and ruin the mood.

"What is going on here? How can he have a harem and I don't? That is so unfair." Issei said.

"*sigh* That is something that comes with having power AND treating girls with respect. Both things that you obviously are lacking at the moment if your last try of spying on the female changing room back at school is anything to go by." I said in a tired tone. "Let me introduce them to you guys." I pointed at Yuno first. "Her name is Yuno, she is also another one of my childhood friends. We grew up together and I can tell with confidence that she is among the best stalke… I mean, she is among the best in scouting and detecting enemies. She will be responsible for working with you guys in detection."

I then turned to Seryu. "This girl right here is Seryu, she is very good in large-scale destruction. But considering that her style of destruction is not centered in magic she wouldn't be of much help for you guys so she will help with anything that you guys may need." She even gave a military salute to them, she really is an earnest girl.

I then turned to the twins. "And finally, but most definitely not least, we have Yuzuru and Kaguya, these two are the granddaughters of the fairy queen, daughters in consideration of Zeus, and my fiancées."

"WHAT!" this time it was Rias that was overreacting. "I didn't know you had fiancées already. Why is it that you never mentioned to my family that you are in such a close proximity to the fairies and the Greek pantheon? It was something you ought to do as it may influence us in the future."

"That is becaus-" I started talking when…

"That is because there was no meaning to it." A woman entered the room. She had long blond hair in drills, blue eyes, white skin, boobs that can rival Rias's and was wearing a blue dress that would be more fitting to a refined dinner or a ball dance. "We may become allies in the near future but that does not mean we are to be subservient to your house to the point that we need to explain every connection we have. What we have between the Tower and the house Gremory is but a simple arrangement to the betterment of both sides."

Luviagelita Edelfet or simply Luvia entered the room.

She has a natural imperious aura that DEMANDS respect around her. She is the leader of Judgment and the responsibility for dealing with some of our external relationship's. She is one of my dad's girls and she used to put me in all sorts of missions so as to train me in action.

"Now let's go to the back and see a good match while waiting for the last few to arrive." Luvia declared (the correct term being ordered) and turned so as to the others to follow.

"What match?" Rias asked.

"Ho ho ho," putting her hand in front of her mouth and giving a little laugh she explained. "the match between your peerage and a team with Castiel as the leader. No worries there will be equal numbers and, in case of any serious wounds, you will be treated in the best way possible. After all, just in an actual battle can it be seen how you guys work and see your capacity as a leader."


	17. Chapter 16

Back of the mountain

Castiel P.O.V.

"So, we are to fight against Ria's peerage in a group fight. The first team leader that 'dies' loses. As I am more used to fight with you girls the team will be us." I said looking at Yuno, Kuroko, the twins, and Seryu. The fact that I fear more my own team killing each other OR myself during this fight than the opponents is not a good omen for my future life.

Damned dad's hereditary luck.

"So… what do you want us to do captain?" Seryu asked almost breaming with excitement. She is always like that when we are on a mission together, according to her 'serving justice with you is just like a date'… hearing this from a girl when she is covered in blood of her enemies is NOT a pleasant experience.

"I want Yuno to analyze the current location of the opposing side first."

"Understood, Cas-kun. By the way, when can we have our next date? It has been 37 days, 13 hours, 23 minutes and 43 seconds since the last one. I miss our time together." Did I say that Yuno scares the shit out of me in this sort of times?

Her eyes are so full of darkness and with her weapon, the 'chain scepter' (a mix of a scepter used to invoke magic with a chainsaw, don't ask me why she build such a thing as the only answer I ever got was 'this feels natural'), on hand the image is really scary.

"How about later today after this and your teachings for them? That is if I don't have anything else that demands my atten-"

"If there is anything else I just need to kill it." Yuno said with the purest darkness in her eyes.

GULP

As I said, she can be scary as hell.

"A-as I was saying before; after we get proper info about their locations I want Seryu to destroy their surroundings so as to avoid any chance of they running and hiding in the woods or use of terrain somehow. We may know it better but allowing unpredictable variants on the battlefield is an unnecessary risk."

That is why I want to see if I can recruit an assassin to the team later. If I had one here I would never destroy such terrain as it could prove useful. Now, on the other hand, it is no more than superfluous and dangerous.

"Understood!" Seryu and Koro gave a salute. They can be so cute in this sort of moments.

"Next, Kuroko I want you in standby. I need you to attack the enemies when they are scattered by Seryu attack. Use needles instead of black keys, as needles will not let big damage on them but will be more than enough for defeating them." I explained but Kuroko was pouting and looking to the side annoyed. "Is there some problem Kuroko?"

"I want time to pass faster so as to go on a date as well."

"*sigh* I understand but remember that I will just take you on any date after you complete 14 in a few months. Also, remember the strategy and don't let your emotions control you. Emotions can help fuel more energy sometimes but they will also dull your aim. Focus on what is important now" seeing her disinterest in my explanation I decided to give her an incentive. "or I will not take you on a date until you are 15. "Her horrified face was a bit funny, a guilty pleasure. "If you do well later today I will watch some anime with you, your choice." With her, it is needed a 'stick and carrot' approach.

"OK." She loves to watch anime together with me, she sits on my lap and most times she just sleeps right there. "Let's watch 'Ore no Imoto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai'." If only she had a better taste for anime.

Nothing personal against the show, but watching it with a girl that calls you Onii-sama is not good for my mental health, or my physical one. Bazet is very protective of her 'baby girl'.

"Finally," I turned to the twins. "I want both of you to check the skies and drop all that goes in there. If possible you can also send some thunder and winds on their team." I explained and they nodded.

"This seems like a dull strategy for one that is destined to be a soul companion of this me that is the incarnation of all tempests in the world." Kaguya said in a loud voice.

"Doubt. I comprehend what you intend but what exactly will you be doing?"

I gave a grim smile at that question. I will make the best course of action for this situation of course. I need to confirm somethings and this will be a great chance to do just that.

* * *

Rias P.O.V.

"So this is the plan. Kiba, you and Koneko will go to the east and west respectively and eliminate any enemies you can find. Gasper I want you to go with Kiba and support him with your bats and if possible do it in the distance so as to avoid that your sacred gear ends up as a minus." The three nodded, I am happy that I received a mystic code with that blessing that Castiel used before to give Gasper.

This way he can actually fight and not just stay in his room, I know it is not a solution for his problem but at least it helps him by giving him courage.

"Ara, ara. What about me and little Issei Buchou?" Akeno asked with her perpetual small smile on her face. She is acting smug since she discovered that she has more magical circuits than me an hour ago. That is so unfair *humph*.

"I want you to take the skies and accumulate energy to launch a decisive strike when necessary. Issei, I want you to stay here at the base with me so as to charge your boost to transfer it latter to me or anyone else as needed." I then looked at everyone and decided to give the last message to them all, an encouragement. "We can win this, I know every one of you trained hard during this last years-"

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

SNIKER

I don't know why but I feel a sudden urge to laugh at a good joke. However, I must hold it as there is no place for excessive emotions on the battlefield.

* * *

Rias P.O.V.

"probably just as much, if not more so than them-"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"What was that?" I asked as a sudden laugh echoed the whole field.

"I don't know Buchou, but I do feel a sense of foregoing in the air." Akeno said.

"No matter, the important thing is to go and do our best. My cute servants GO."

And with that everyone went to their mission, I will stay here as I know it is the most protected place as I did put some bounded fields in the area. "Now I just need to wait to see how it will go."

* * *

Kiba P.O.V.

"Come on Gasper, we must eliminate at least a few of the enemies as fast as possible."

"H-hay, I will do my b-b-best." Gasper really is trying his best. He was never the bravest, and is a hikikomuri, but he does want to help and this is obvious. I must also try my best to support him during this battle.

As we were walking I noticed a figure in the far distance. It was that girl of that Castiel, Seryu if I am not wrong. She is wearing a green military uniform and with that strange dog beside her. Suddenly that dog's head grows WAY too much and bites he-

WHAT?

What is going on? Was that beast not trained well? I must go and help her now.

As I started to run, I realized that the dog's head receded and she was still fine. That is good, knowing she is fine and using… oh shit. When did she arm herself with a missile launcher? And one that is twice her size with at least 40 rockets in each one.

I must do one thing first, get Gaper and run.

I turn around to catch Gasper and take him away when I notice that I am too far from where Gasper is, I must have gone too fast and distanced myself from him. I can't save him now as she is already launching, there is no time.

RUN

* * *

Koneko P.O.V.

SNIFF SNIFF

Gunpowder smell. Where is this coming from?

I went to the top of a large tree around me when I saw that Seryu girl appear with rocket launchers on her back, she is aiming at the general area of Gaspie (Gasper's nickname). I must trust Kiba will save him and get away from here.

* * *

Gasper P.O.V.

I want my room back. I knew it, the world outside is scary. Kiba ran away abandoning me here and now that scary lady is launching more than 40 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, also known as ATacMS (I play A LOT of war games).

Wha-what am I going to do? Her smile is scary and everyone else is too far away.

I know, let's defend.

"Come, my shadows."

Using my shadow monsters made by my power I made a done like protection around me. Yes, in the dark spot I am safe, I will never leave my box again no matter how much this thing they gave me yesterday is effective. Here I am safe.

 _ **BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

* * *

2 minutes ago

Seryu P.O.V.

"So… Yuno-chan, where are they exactly?" I asked. This is so boring; my time would be better used with Castiel or serving JUSTICE. I mean, there are so many villains out there and now I am here wasting my time with these devils.

"…"

"Yuno-chan?"

"…"

"YYUUNNOO-CHAN!" God, she is always like that whenever she isn't with Castiel around.

"*sigh* Fine, just a moment." Then she took out her sacred gear, a book, so as to start her search. " **Aletheia Nikki** , where are the enemies located." The pages of her sacred gear started shining and then the answer came out. "There is a 93% chance of the knight and bishop being at 1,2 Km southeast, there is an 84% chance that the rook is 900 meters southwest. Also, there is a 99% chance of Rias and that pawn being on their base. The queen is in the skies facing the twins, the chance of they losing in the next minute is at 87%... Also, the chance of Castiel loving me more than you is 1000%." In that last part, she gave a mocking smile.

TWITCH

My eyebrows must be twitching right now. She is truly annoying, whenever she works together with any of the girls that are with Castiel she likes to PRETEND (as I am sure he loves me more) that he loves her more than anyone else and we are all just add-ons.

"Ok then. Koro, form 1." With this order (and while ignoring her) Koro opens his mouth and bites the upper part of my body. It may seem strange but the fact of the matter is that Koro is connected to my arms and when he swallows the upper part of my body he can switch my arms with other equipment he has inside his magic space. It is somewhat like an inventory of an RPG but I need to be bitten to change weapons.

When he receded My arms were exchanged with one of my babies. These rockets can travel up to 3 Km and have a wide shock area, it is a shame that I cannot use them to the fullest as I must make sure I don't accidentally kill them. Readjusting impact location to the surroundings are to where the enemies are located, aim carefully, ready… FIRE.

 _ **BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

Seeing the mountainin fire is wonderful. Now I must retreat with Yuno as our job is done.

* * *

Koneko P.O.V.

COUGH COUGH

That was quite the explosion. I must go back to Rias-sempai and check if she and the others are fine.

STAB STAB

* * *

Kiba P.O.V.

PANT PANT PANT

That was too close. If I didn't run fast to a place where this carpet bombing did not affect greatly I could have died. I hope Gasper is fine, well at least with this explosion the area does not have a lot of trees anymore so you can see quite far away so no surprise attacks will be coming next.

STAB STAB

* * *

Kuroko P.O.V.

"Onii-sama, the targets were taken care off. The rook was surrounded by too much smoke to detect my smell when I teleported close to her giving me the opportunity of putting a needle in her neck in a disabling fashion. The knight just started going back in the middle of the open field without the necessary caution allowing me to sneak attack him on the neck just as well."

"Great job Kuroko. I knew you could do it. I need to go now, stay safe."

.

.

.

.

.

 _ **YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! A hundred times YES!**_

I got praised by Onii-sama, I am so happy I could go to heaven right now. If it wasn't a mission now I'd teleport there and demand a prize.

Now I just need to wait for further instructions if needed and that is it. The bishop that remained in his spot with a defense far from powerful enough is also down so now the only opponents left are the pawn, king, and queen.

CRASH

Now it is just the king and the pawn.

* * *

Five minutes ago

Skies

Akeno P.O.V.

"Ufufufu, so you girls are my opponents?" I asked the twins in front of me. They look almost exactly the same, the same orange hair color, the same height, the same face and the same piercing blue eyes and equally developed body (even if mine is better).

"You did well in getting all the way over here, but this is your limit. You cannot suppress the winds and thunder of the twins of catastrophe!" a way too excited girl said. She had a lively expression on her face and her clothes seemed right out of one of the magazines I read last week 'SM and you'. It was composed of strips of purple leather to her upper body, a half skirt around her waist which drops to her knees and opens around her thighs, it also has a chain and locks on her left arm, neck, right under her breasts and left leg.

Maybe later I should ask them where they bought such outfits, they are so interesting.

"Declaration. Surrender now and you will not suffer." In contrast, a stoic girl said in an emotionless tone. She is dressed in the same way as her sister but with a small cape over her shoulder, the chain and locks are on the right leg and arm and the color of the clothing is bluish-purple.

"Ara ara, I really am being underestimated here. I am the queen of Rias Gremory, heiress of the Gremory clan. I am known as the Priestess of Thunder and in the sky, I am the strongest." While talking I was charging a large thunder strike. I would use it to hit their base and possible Castiel but eliminate two enemies at once is worth the effort as well.

ZAAP

BOOOOOMM

Ha, I knew it. They were not that great, devils are the superior race after all. Better than humans, better than fairies and _better then fallen-angels._

"Disappointment. If that is all you can get while charging an attack it really falls short."

"Kukuku, that is where you are wrong, dear sister. It is not that it is disappointing, it is just that her way if using thunder is inefficient while comparing to the power of my left arm that is locked to not destroy the world."

"Negation. This is just a strong chain and does not lock any mythical power… besides your power can't destroy the world even if you tried. You are lacking in power and in boobs, laugh."

"D-don't laugh. I-I do have the power; it is just that I never used before. Also, don't say I lack in boobs, we have the same size."

"Correction. I measured mine this morning and they are one centimeter above yours."

And the argument continued. How is it possible for these two to completely ignore my attack and forget that I am here to discuss who is the more feminine? (that would be me anyway) (writer's note: I personally prefer the twins, but this is just me)

I decided to ignore this pair for what is happening on the floor. It seems like that Seryu girl launched a lot of missiles on the ground and is now retreating. She must have no more ammo; this is my chance. I will ambush her before she can reload.

* * *

A few seconds later

"…and that is why I have a better figure."

"Tired. Your delusions don't matter now, let's eliminate the target and go see Castiel. This match will probably end soon."

With that, the two girls looked around noticing Akeno flying in the direction of Seryu.

"Irritated. How rude. To blatantly ignore us to go after our comrade is not good."  
"I agree with you Yuzuru, let's show her how the children on the typhoon fight."

And so putting their hands together with their firsts pointed to the sky and opening wings that looked like fairy wings of 1 meter, made of pure wind with veins of thunder.

"" **Great fall** ""

With that, a high pressured air blast fell down from the sky, hitting Akeno on her back before she could react.

CRASH

* * *

Rias P.O.V.

"Akeno, Kiba, Gasper, Koneko, anyone please answer me. Answer me this instance." Letting go of the transmitter I reclined my head and could only pray to Lucifer (also known as Onii-sama) for their wellbeing. "Issei, how many boosts have you managed to accumulate?"

"Buchou I managed to go up to 5. It is already my limit but the boost is still considerable." Issei said, hiding his worry for the rest of the peerage.

"Okay, Issei. We will now go and search for the enemy leader. It is our best and only chance now."

Issei was clearly shaken by this situation. We only ever thought low-class and at most mid-class strays up until now, it is natural to worry.

"Do not worry Issei, I am here and will protect you." After I said that his eyes started to sparkle, so cute. His reactions are all just so cute, it is like a mix of little brother and a puppy.

As we go away from our base I feel confident. I heard my brother telling me stories of his time during the great war and he always came back fine, as his sister I will not lose.

SWOOSH

BAAMM

"Well, well well princess. Do you surrender now?" Castiel appeared not that far from me with his bow in hand pointing at me. I turned around and Issei was knocked out, is he de-

"Don't worry, I am not stupid. The arrows were made just for stun." He said and involuntarily I sighed in relief. "Now I repeat, do you surrender."

I looked at my surroundings and realize that he may be alone now but his companions are probably close by and if I resist I will lose anyway so why bother.

"I surrender."

"Tch!" He seems irritated with me. "You really lack backbone, huh. It was just one-on-one in a controlled environment where your opponent will not go for the killing blow. This sort of scenario is ideal for an all-or-nothing but if this is the sort of reaction you have when in this scenario I can only say that you lack conviction and have no chance against Riser, much less the real world out there." He turned around to leave but first left me with some worlds. "Grow and leave those ideals of normal life to after you are strong enough to survive on your own, because the way things are now, you and your peerage are not ready for the world outside of your comfort zone."

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I know many will be pissed at me for that last comment from Castiel but it is true. That was a scenario that could allow her to fight back even in this desperate situation, but she ended up giving up. It is the some for her fight against Riser on canon, she gave up after Issei was wounded but she should have dismissed him so as to let him get treated and continued to fight to her last strength instead of giving up when she still got the power to fight.**

 **In a controled enviroment such as that one she could have kept fighting to the bitter end instead of surrendering like that, for what I saw she was the one that lacked the most conviction. Kiba and the others all fought untill exaustion and were defeated in the end, but they still fought untill the bitter end. She was not even burned a little and gave up anyway.**

 **That was a lack of backbone if you ask me.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Now you can go ahead and tell me how wrong I am, I bet there are many that will do just that.**

 **Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter, and for those that want to see how exactly the 'real world' is outside of Kuoh a new arc is on the making to show just that. It is a filler arc but I think it will be quite good and will show some of the characters fighting and how messed up something are out there.**


	18. Chapter 17

3° person P.O.V.

"So, now we will start our battle report." Luvia said in a serious tone, she even put glasses on her face as she usually does whenever she is reading or admonishing someone. "First, Kiba. Why did you run ahead of your teammate ignoring the orders given to you before?"

"I saw her being attacked by her dog and as a knight I must help the weak."

"Stupidity. She was your enemy at the time, if she falls by friendly fire all the better." Her face clouded and she continued. "And why did you went out in the middle of the clearing made by your enemy?"

"I needed to regroup with Rias to see if she was fine."

"And did you forgot that she was far away and most likely safe?"

"I-I-"

"Did not think, and showed a lack of professionalism. I hope your teacher can help you in that regard," she then turned to the side and called someone fourth "Arthur, he will be your student on this next period of time, but if there is a need you will be recalled to do your duty as a Judgment official. Make it a point to show him the difference between being a knight and being a fool."

"Yes, my lady." Arthur said with a polite bow and trying hard not to show the sweat drop on his back, knowing that he can be called anytime to fight normally was something he looked forward to but when it is Luvia that is calling the story is quite different. He then unceremoniously took Kiba out of the room to start training.

"Next will be Akeno." Luvia said, Akeno hearing her name being called straightened her back a bit more. "You seem to have ample amount of magic reserves but your control of said magic is terrible. You spend two times the amount for half the effect, also your decision of ignoring the enemies in front of you turning your back to them in favor of attacking another enemy that was distant shows that you also lack experience. NEVER turn your back to an enemy. And, if you have to, you must be absolutely sure of your surroundings so as to not suffer a sneak attack." Luvia then turned to the side and called the trainers. "Yuzuru, Kaguya you two must help her in how to control her powers better."

"Acceptance. Yes, Luvia-sama."

"I agree to your request, lady of the infernal jewels."

"*sigh* You two should really start talking like normal people." Luvia said tiredly.

Tilting their heads both said.

"What do you mean by that?"  
"Confusion. I do not understand the meaning of this statement?"

"*sigh* Whatever, just go already."

And so, while looking a mix of amused and confused by what just happened, Akeno was dragged by the twins.

"Next is you Koneko." Luvia said turning the page of her notes, yes she did take notes of all that happened. "For the most part, you seem fine for a devil." Koneko seemed to relax a bit if her shoulders relaxing a small bit was anything to go by. "And for a devil only." And Koneko's tension returned with guts. "You limited your Yokai abilities too much. You depended on your nose to detect your surroundings but ignored training your feral instincts and your natural capacity on senjutsu. If you had accepted and trained as you should from the start you would not have been taken down that easily."

Koneko was surprised and could not help but ask

"H-how did you know of that side of me?"

"Simple really, your sister told us all about you." Koneko's eyes widened after she heard this. "It was actually easier if she did NOT talk so much about you. Honestly, whenever she is drunk, which is more often than not, she starts talking all about you over and over again. *sigh*"

"Impossible, my sister abandoned me. She is a fugitive, she is a stray, she is-"

"One of the teachers back in the Tower, responsible for the youjutsu department." And with that Koneko shut up, she was obviously quite shaken by this new information. Ignoring this Luvia called someone. "Bikou, you are the one to train Koneko. Make sure of training her in how to actually fight as a Yokai."

"Leave it to me." And then turning to the little white haired girl he said with a smile. "You are just as cute as my girl said you were."

Tilting her head Koneko asked. "Your 'girl'?"

"Yes, my girlfriend Kuroka." And, faster than Koneko could thing of running away from him and all things related to her sister, Bikou cached her by the nape of the neck and took her away.

"Next is Gasper."

"H-hay!"

"You seem to have problems with your sacred gear, if not you could have simply stopped those missiles. Also, you have an obvious lack of battle experience and poor decision-making skills, which combined with your cowardice makes you more of a liability than an actual battle force." Luvai said seriously while looking at the small trap. "It all boils down to your difficulty to accept yourself and your emotions."

Gasper could only look at the floor hearing this.

"Your trainer will be specially selected to you… when is that girl coming anyway? I will cut her salary if she is not here in thirty seconds."

And them a new voice suddenly said.

"So I arrived thirty seconds early." And with that, a blond girl entered the room. She has her hair done in twin tales getting till her ass, she is also wearing a simple dark neck choker, opera gloves, and a cape-like gown held together by two strings around her neck that mostly cover her chest (even if it fails on its objective enough to make Issei drown all over her). She is also wearing a black mini short with a brown belt and black semi-transparent stockings.

The moment she entered the room Issei started salivating a lot and lose blood due to a bloody nose… on the way it was going, he could die of dehydration if he was not a devil.

"So this is the little guy you wanted me to teach, huh, Luvia." And the lack of honorifics was felt as Luvia's expression darkened considerably. "Well fine. But I do want the info you manage to obtain in his blood latter."

She then turned to Gasper that was cowering and said with a slight smile.

"Come on little one, Onee-san will take care of you." And while taking him out no one noticed the wicked smile on Liesellot Sherlock, a descendant of the Magus clan know by investigating all they found interesting and a girl that loves to tease others so much that she is avoided like a plague most of the time… for good reasons according to Bikou and his undies.

"Now Issei," with that the perverted teen turned to the blond woman that he was salivating over for the last few minutes, especially when she moved and her breasts bounced. "You seem to have a terrible body. No resistance, reflexes or strength to speak of. You will focus on it and also in connecting to your sacred gear. Luckily you also have s specially selected trainer for you."

Remembering that last especially selected trainer and how sexy the girl was he could not help but imagine all sorts of girls training him with A LOT of physical contacts. His nose started bleeding all over again just by imagining it.

"Um! Deux! Trois! Un! Deux! Kuraa!"

"Seems like he arrived just in time as well." Luvia said with a smile. Despite all awkwardness, this man still is a 'man among men'.

"~This world is made ~up of men and woman! ~However, Okama are both men and ~women! That is why~ it is the best! It is the best! Okama way! It is the greatest! It is the best! ~Okama way! Okama way! Okama WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY~~~~! Mchu"

And with that song, a man entered the room. He was… bizarre in a visual way. He was fairly tall and muscular, but not overly so and with a black short hair.

He used thick makeup with green shades on his eyes, a circle of blush on his cheeks and a small heart made of lipstick on his mouth. He is also, for some reason, wearing a dark-blue shirt with two light-blue swans on each side; a medieval style dark-blue buffonic style short that ends above his knees; he also was with pink ballet shoes and wearing a bright pink overcoat with two swans coming from his shoulders with their wings open, three white pon-pons on the end of the coat and in the back, written in bold black letters is the phrase 'Oh come my WAY!' on his back.

He then started spinning on one foot while the other is up in the air with his hands. And in this strange posture, he talks.

"It is not a joke! So, who is it that is the red dragon emperor."

Suddenly, his nails shinned a bit and he turned to Issei. Seeing this Okama up close Issei did not know what to do, strangely enough, his sacred gear reacted and started sending him a message over and over again 'RUN AWAY NOW!".

"Don't worry, dragon-boooy. I will train you well, after all, it is not just a request from the Tower after all." And with that Issei was taken away from there, being carried on like a sack of potatoes.

"W-who was that?" Rias asked.

"That man's name is Bentham, but he prefers to go by Bon Clay. He is the king of Momoiro Island, the sacred land of the Okama's." Luvia explained.

"And is he strong enough to teach dear Issei?" Rias could not help but ask. It was a fact that Okama's usually were not that strong.

*laughter across the room from all except Rias*

"What, was my question that strange?" Rias asked with a bit of anger in her voice.

"No, it is just that for an heiress of an aristocratic family you are lacking way too much in your information. You don't even know of the powers that are not part of the three factions you are part of." Recomposing herself Luvia explained. "I apologize for my lack of composure just now. And, to answer your question the Okamas from Momoiro Island are all strong. They only number in about 3 thousand but they are mostly either High-level or ultimate-level." Rias' chock was evident by how her eyes opened and her mouth stayed open in pure disbelief. "Bon Clay is the king of the said island, that is one of our most trusted allies for quite some time now, and his powers are around mid to high super-level. And the most important part is that he houses a sacred gear with a spirit feared by most, if not ALL, beings that are old enough." And giving a condescending look to the heiress she finished. "So, yes he is capable enough to help 'dear Issei'."

Taking a sip of her tea so as to relieve her dry throat Luvia decided to continue.

"Now for you Rias, I can only say that you are a disappointment. You lack grace on the battlefield. Your strategies are terrible and you obviously are too unbalanced for your own good. You have a lot of pure magic capacity, easily more than Castiel, and in pure magic amount, you are in mid to high high-class. The problem is that you lack the necessary control and technique to use said powers, your reflexes are lacking and you put too much trust in raw energy. Any enemy that surpasses you in power, or is fast enough or attack from a long distance well enough can take you down. In the way I see it, you may have arguably high high-level power but in actual combat, you only match a high mid-level at most." Luvia then smiled at her "But do not worry, I will help you personally in this, as I will be the one teaching you." And with an even bigger smile, she said: "Now be a dear and go outside, I have some business to treat with Castiel and the girls."

And with a confused and downcast state of mind Rias got out of the room.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V

"What is it you need to inform us, Luvia-sama?" I hope it is not much, I really, really do. I have a date later with Yuno and I fear that, if I don't go, she will go on a killing spree… it should sound much harder to happen than it actually is.

"I must ask; why did you decide to give her a chance for a comeback by appearing in front of her by the end? It would be much simpler to just stay in the back after you finished all the enemies and overwhelm her with numbers." Is she testing me? The answer should be clear to both of us.

"It is simple; this may have been a simulation of a battlefield, but it still just a simulation. My objective was pressuring her and see how she would react under pressure. First, by eliminating her teammates fast before she could react I'd see how she would react and if she can keep her composure. She could have stayed in the base, reinforcing her defenses, or surrender right then and there. Those were the best options in her case, but she clung to her pride and took the fight to me, an action that made her in a bad position. After that by eliminating her last peerage member and taking away her last ace, that ANYONE that does his research would know, I appeared in front of her to see if she would try to flee from conflict or if she would face me. In the end, she just gave up under the pressure of being the last one. A leader must keep a cool head at all times during the battle and do his best, search for all possible ways to survive and win, he must inspire his followers and not simply depend on them.

If a king is to fall he must go taking his enemies with him in a glorious fire and not give up unless it is to save those under him." Taking a breath, I concluded. "I wanted to see if she is a true leader or not. Right now she is not."

Luvia simply looked at me for a moment and after some time smiled.

"Ho ho ho. That was a wonderful answer, as expected of the heir of the Tower." She even gave a short applause to my answer. "Now for the orders for all of you." Luvia then turned serious again. "First, Yuno and Kuroko, you both will remain here to teach them scouting and teleportation. And yes, it will start tomorrow as I know Castiel has some plans for you both later today." Yuno and Kuroko smiled at that. They seem to be really looking forward to our time together. Seryu looks downcast as I did not program any date for us. "Castiel you will be going in an escort mission for the daughter of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, also known as Mikoto-chan. It is an important mission as we are allied forces and this can help get both sides closer together. For the team of this mission, it will be you, Seryu" and in the back Seryu was giving a high-five with Koro while giving a mocking smile to Kuroko and Yuno as she would spend quite some time with me on HER definition of a date (she sees hunting strays and going in missions together as dates) ", Okuyasu, as he does need some actual experience in live combat, and as the last member it will be-"

"Could it be Emily? I did promise her to take her on my next mission after all." I suggested.

"Sure, why not. I was going to send some of the sisters, but I suppose Emily works as well. I will still send a Sisters just as a precaution." She then closed the meeting. "Your missions start tomorrow, enjoy your time now. Dispensed." And with that, she left the room… I could swear that I could hear in the distance a voice of a pervert _trying_ to run from an Okama, it was strangely soothing.

* * *

 **Omake**

 _A date with Yuno_

"So, Yuno-chan. Where do you want to go on this date?" We were walking on the streets of Tokyo as it was relatively close to the mountains we were before. It was a nice spot we were now, a small café with a nice vibe going for it. We just had a cappuccino and some biscuits to match. The date would go until nightfall as after I had to go watch a movie with Kuroko.

"Hum… oh, I know! Follow me." And taking my arm and barely remembering to pay the bill of the café we left the place.

Yuno has always been an active girl that had her way every time. I still remember the day when we were young that Emily gave me choco for valentine day and Yuno ate them all and started hunting Emily across the whole tower with a knife. The adults all laughed at it saying the kids were having fun but Emily locked herself in her room for a whole weak after that… I never received a choco from her on valentine since.

.

.

.

After accompanying her for a while, holding hands of course, we finally arrived on the next spot on our date… it was a love hotel.

"Let's go Cas-kun. I want to give you a _special gift._ " No, I will not go in there no matter what.

"Y-Yuno-chan, you know we can't do that until we are married, right?" Please, anything but that.

"Oh, you are being such a prude. I just want to show you my love for you." She started pouting at me. The destructive power is **over 9000**. "Why do you still refuse me?"

"It is not so much as me rejecting you, is more like I want to survive." I really meant it. I still remember when Caster and Souichiru explained to me that we are only to do that AFTER we are properly married, or else they will execute me and even torture my soul for all of eternity.

Normally it may seem like an overstatement but when they show you the torture devices for my execution and the eternal fire made to put a soul under eternal torture you, you really see the importance of marriage for a happy life (or, in my case, to remain alive). Yuno pouting can have a destructive power of **over 9000** but her parents scare me on **Jiren level** (I am a fan of Dragon Ball Super as well as all other versions of it). "Can you chose somewhere else, please my darling?"

Hearing me calling her darling made her start fidgeting and blush. She is the type that is full offense but no defense after all.

"If you reaaaally want me to, fine. But remember, I will be your first," and her tone goes dark just as her eyes lose all life "understood, Cas-kun?" Did I say that I fear her almost as much as her parents whenever she gets like this, because I do fear her at this sort of times.

"Of course. It was a promise from when we were younger after all." More like a geass really. She forced me to sign it when I was just 7 and didn't really understood what I was doing, to be exact the contract said 'in exchange of giving Yuno your virginity you receive a pack of pudding ultra-deluxe edition'… I was, and am, a sucker for pudding.

Yuno gave a satisfied nod and took me to the next spot she chose for the date… a lingerie shop. She is really trying to get me killed.

* * *

 _Kuroko's movie session_

"Onii-sama, I decided to watch a movie." Kuroko said after sitting on my lap. She was wearing a skirt and was starting to grind on me.

HEAD CHOP

"Ouch, why did you do that Onii-sama?" She said with traces of tears in her eyes.

"Because you were acting like a pervert, again." I said in full seriousness.

"Fine, fine no more of that let's just watch the movie." Kuroko said with a dejected voice dropping her head.

I could not resist and gave her a pat on the head and a small kiss on the cheek. Her face brightened very fast. She was always honest and direct to a fault if she wants something she will go for it, if she wants to say something she will say it directly. I blame Lancer for her bluntness. And thank him as well as this characteristic of her is a big part of what makes her who she is.

.

.

.

In the end, the movie was quite good. It was a movie called 'Lego: Batman', a movie that truly surprised me, much better than the other option she made me watch last time, 'fifty shades of gray' or, as I would call, 'sex contract'. I can't understand how ANYONE can like this movie, but hey we all are entailed on Liking what we like... except Twilight. Sparkling vampires man, SPARKLING.

On the middle of the movie Kuroko curled up in a ball on my chest and started sleeping, she likes to do that as I make her feel safe. I just stood there after the movie ended, so as to not wake her up, and dozed off myself as well. This turned out to be a good day.

* * *

 **Writer's Note**

 **I just wanted to inform that I will be going on a trip this week and will only be capable of posting the next chapter next Tuesday.**

 **Also, what did you guys think of this chapter? I hope it was good and that you readers that are still reading my story will like it.**

 **BTW, I am thinking of making another story. It will be based on Terror Infinity as I like that style a lot and, personally, I prefer it over 'The Gamer' type that is almost overwhelming the site. If anyone has any ideas of OC's be free to send me then and I will see if they can be put in the story.**


	19. Chapter 18

Kiba's training

Kiba P.O.V.

"Raise your sword on a 13°, not 10°. Are you incapable of controlling your body or you are just lazy?" And with that, this blond demon came at me again.

CRACK

"I told you already that if you are going to create swords make some that actually can take a hit." He declared after breaking another one of my swords, this must have been number 300. If we weren't in this room that recovers fatigue and magic reserves fast, I'd already been down.

"Easy for you to say, you have a freaking Excalibur in your hand," I said frustrated. When he revealed his sword as **Excalibur Galantine** I was honestly awed. Every swordsman knows of Excalibur and any sword that carries its name of to be great. Strangely enough, when I praised him he was pleased but when I asked if it was one of the seven fragments he looked pissed off and said that the training starts now.

CLASH

SLASH

STAB

STAB

SLASH

CLASH

CLANG

Since the start three hours ago we have been going at it non-stop. I need some rest soon or else I will simply pass out.

"Ok, that got me some idea of how you move." He said opening a space between us. "You obviously focus too much on speed. Your training will be focused on resistance, that you obviously lack as even in this room you barely manage three hours, and also in some techniques on how to redirect attacks. You must understand that while bursts of speed can be great it won't always work, especially since your speed is mostly granted by the knight piece and as such anyone that know you are a reincarnated knight will be wary of that."

I could understand what he meant by that. Fighting Castiel and Arthur let me see that just speed alone is not enough.

"Ok, we will start training it tomorrow then, right? I mean, we are training for over three hours now and I do need to rest." I said.

"Hahahaha, oh no no no no. You are not going to rest now at all. We just have around 12 days to get you in proper shape for the rating game, rest will be only the sleep time, which will be 4 hours, and feeding time, that will be an interval of no more than 20 minutes each time." After he said this, this... this madness he concluded "We will start now, let's go we will stay in the gravity room. Objective, a marathon of 124 Km followed with sparing till you can't move anymore using this headset that constantly tells you all your mistakes." And as if forgetting he complemented his previous statement. "And don't worry, your feeding time will be AFTER all that and if you are about to pass out before that you will get some nutrients through this food pills. They have all necessary nutrients to give you strength, but taste like a mix of shit and spoiled milk. With time you will come to not throw up too much." And after that Arthur Pendragon smiled. He must be punishing me for something.

* * *

Arthur P.O.V.

I finally understand why Saber-sensei put me and Cas through all those crazy trainings, seeing the face of the students when you declare what he must do is just great. And after hearing him compare that Excalibur fragments to my Galantine it just makes it all the more pleasant. My galantine was made by fusing one of the fragments of the Excalibur, the Caliburn my family had, and some eternal flames obtained by Saber-sensei herself after many missions for the Greek pantheon. It was forged by Shiro-sama and is so much greater than the Excalibur that was said to be on my family originally that comparing Galantine with a mere fragment of the previous Excalibur is an offense to my companion.

I hope to get him to an acceptable level before long and maybe put on his head the difference between being a knight and being a fool. As a student of the king of Knights, it is my moral obligation.

* * *

Another training area

Koneko P.O.V.

"So… why you don't train properly?" Bikou asked

"…"

"Heey… are you listening?"

"…"

"Answer me already."

"I don't want to end up like nee-san. I really don't. She abandoned me after killing our master. She was like that because of her powers being evil… so I won't use them." I gave my resolution. I will not become anything like nee-san, I will become strong without using that power.

With a raised eyebrow Bikou asked.

"Are you serious? That is so dumb."

"…" I will go train alone; it is better than with him.

"If you go now you will be abandoned in the future you know."

I froze when I heard that.

"What do you mean?"

"Simple really." With a shrug of his shoulders, he explained. "The way you are now you can't protect even yourself, not to mention your king. If you at the very least accept to properly train you will become strong enough for that AND if you follow a proper training you will not fall in madness by the excessive bad energy in the atmosphere, especially since you have been absorbing it for quite some time."

"What do you mean by 'I have been absorbing it for quite some time'? I haven't used senjutsu or trained on it since I was a child."

"And that is a problem in and of itself. When someone starts training in senjutsu they enter in contact with the flow of life of the world. That is a good thing as, if you can actually master this connection, you can know where anyone in your proximity is located, how strong they are and their feelings at the moment.

At this moment you are feeling distrustful towards me and a shining hate towards my girl. On the other hand, if you enter in contact with this flow and simply don't train and lock it always you will still be absorbing some of the natural flow in your body and to adjust to it your body will not develop as it should. If the concentration of energy gets to pass a certain threshold you will go mad due to overwhelming negative emotions. That is why many think this power is evil to begin with." He explained while eating a banana that he took out from nowhere.

"So that is why nee-san went crazy." I thought. If what he said is true so it would make sense, my sister must have gone crazy due to not training properly… like I am now.

"Nope, she had other reasons for it." He said. "But it is not my place to explain them to you. What I am here for is to help you in your training in accepting your Yokai side and to train in senjutsu."

I sit down and started eating a bit. If what he says is true so I need his help, maybe it will let me grow to not look like a child so much, nyaa.

"What is the training exactly?"

"You will take this pill right here." He took a pill from the pocket on his pants. "It is called nature wakening pill, it releases the wild side of a Yokai. When in that state I will hold you down so as to not let you destroy everything, but I want you to focus on the feeling of your wild side, the reactions, and movements. Also, during this state, you will have greater contact with the flow of nature AND it will expel all negative emotions locked in your body. It was developed by the Tower with the help of your sister so as to help others like you." Bikou gave a smile and said. "My girl may be a horny pussy, as she would describe herself, but she cares a lot about you."

I look at the pill, it is quite strange and has a funny smell.

"Did I said that it has the taste of all your favorite deserts put in one place, Kuroka helped create those thinking on you after all."

GULP

It is all my favorites put together, but it was made by her and

SNIF

SNIF

I ate without thinking, the smell was just so good.

My mouth is on kitty heaven nyaa. I love this taste nyaa. I strangely want to go hunting nyaa. Let's go hunt, NNNYYYAAAAAAAA.

* * *

Bikou P.O.V.

Now for the good part. Whenever a Yokai takes the pill he goes feral and completely follows his instincts, which, when combined with the negative emotions she needs to expel, leads to her going battle crazy. All her talent will flourish and the battle with her will be SO FUN.

"NYAAHH!" She pounced on me, claws, ears, and tail out. She completely turned into an animal.

As I started blocking her strikes and counter attacking with my golden pole I can only think of one thing, 'Koneko-chan, you better take the greatest benefit possible from this. As for me, this fight is going to be SO FUN!'.

* * *

Another training area

Akeno P.O.V.

"So, what is my training?" I asked this twins. They honestly don't really feel that much stronger than me, they most likely defeated me by going two on one.

"Explanation. Your training will be simple. As you lack control and connection to thunder we will fix that. This room we are can reproduce any meteorological condition, we will activate a thunderstorm and you will be holding this" The stoic one gave me an iron rod of more than two meters "and will try to better understand the thunder and lightning using your own body."

"Kukuku, I still remember the times many millennia ago when we went through the tempering of hurricanes and storms that entered in history as the greatest of all times."

"Correction. It was only a few years ago and while the storms were powerful they were not historical in any way… except the Katrina one, that was not a good day."

Is this a new torture method? I am a bit of a masochism but this is…

"Continuation. After you spend five days straight in here doing this you will practice in control by using this thunder ball, it is a mystic code for training in thunder that was projected to be controlled using thunder element and the longer the time used the harder it is to control, as well as the more energy it has accumulated that, in the case of failure in keeping it in check and completing the missions allocated, will discharge at you."

"That is more of a torture than training." I couldn't help but exclaim.

"Who cares? We are the great children of the storm and if you are going to learn how to use the power of thunder you must be capable of at least this much." The expressive one said, Kaguya I believe.

I am feeling that I might hate those two before the end of this training.

* * *

Another room

Gasper P.O.V.

W-what do I do? This girl is taking me always from my friends and said she will train me, but what do I do? She may hit me while nobody is looking, or talk bad things about me, or try to kill me, or –

KISS

"Hum, not bad if I must say." She kissed me. Wh-Wh-What do I do? Rias-sama, this girl is a kissing demon. "And these are the results." She suddenly took out a tablet, and I just realized that I got really tired just now. "According to this, your vampiric powers are a mess and this leads to a terrible control of your sacred gear. What to do, what to do? Oh, I know." She suddenly looked at me with a scary glean on her eyes.

"I will use this nifty little code here to send you to relive all your past experiences, it just works on those who are mentally weaker than the caster and as long as you change yourself even a bit the loop will stop. It is mostly made for treatment of those like you that are traumatized, normally it is not really recommended but it is the faster method to get results so good luck little guy." And with that, she put a strange helmet on my head.

Next thing I know; I am back in the mansion where I was born.

"What are you doing here, you waste of our noble lineage. Disappear from my sight, you filth mistake." And that was my biological half-brother.

This must be hell.

* * *

Liese P.O.V.

Huh, this seems about right. I don't understand why others would worry about doing things the long and hard way when there is a cheat way like this. When I heard of him I went and took this mystic code **Arc symphony** may look like a maestro baton but it was created just for this sort of times. It even accelerates the time in his dreams so that one hour outside is equivalent to around one year inside, he can spend ALL the time he needs in there until he finally overcomes his fears. I even let him hold the mystic code that grants him some courage.

Now I can spend all the time I need to mix the results I got from his magic powers and the remnants of energy I manage to obtain of his sacred gear to my own research.

Don't think bad of me vampire-kun, I am just a true magus after all.

* * *

Another room

Rias P.O.V.

"You must learn to keep a cool head at all times. As a leader that must be your first priority, if the one who leads can't do his job properly his subordinates are the ones who suffer." And so my sensei for this period of time, Luvia Edelfet said. She is a well-known person, even if she has been active for a short time (on a devil's perspective).

"But all members of house Gremory has the characteristic of being affectionate and emotional, and emotions help in devil's magic," I explained. It is not like I don't understand where she is coming from, but the problem is just as I said.

"*sigh* You of the Gremory house are all so complicated. It surprises me you guys even can maintain your post as high nobility." A tick mark must be on my forehead as this comment REALLY annoys me. "You should try and keep this characteristic in cheek them, a leader must not be too affectionate to his subordinates on the battlefield. Now for the training we will be doing, it will be a leadership training, and afterwards a training focussed on control."

She then walked to a corner of the room and took out a small helmet.

"This, thing, here allows your mind to enter a virtual reality. It was made by mixing the technology by one of our science-tower sub-chefs, Kaiaba, by combining witchcraft, magecraft, and virtual reality. It will lead you to being a leader in a battle between groups of varied size, two-man cells, small team fights, large-scale combat and with varied terrains and enemies." Luvia explained, seemingly with a mix of disgust and pride for the object.

"Wow, so this is like a video-game?" I couldn't help but ask. I love games, and dating games in special, but war simulations are good too.

"Yes and no. Yes in that you will see it as close to a game, but no in that even your feelings for your group will be simulated."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked with some worry.

"This one here will make you feel all the feelings you normally would for a group that was together with you for many years. Do not worry, as soon as the simulation ends the feelings will fade very fast but this way you will truly feel like a fight and not just 'a game'." Luvia explained already about to put it on my head.

"W-why do you have such a thing? Why would ANYONE build such a machine?" It just doesn't make sense to me. It must have taken a lot of time to develop this but the effect of simulating the emotions and trusting people into battle repeatedly like this is simply too cruel.

"It was made for Castiel. He needed experience in leadership and he practiced with this since he was 8 to make sure he can keep a cool head when the time to lead comes (even if he fails from time to time)." Luvia said and got ready to start. "Now, go and get some true batlefield experience."

MACHINE ON

* * *

Luvia P.O.V.

Looking at her like this reminds me of Castiel when he was a child. He was also so innocent, but noblesse-obliges. He was decided to be the heir of the organization and as such needed to learn, and so does this girl.

I will partake in some tea and cookies while she fights bloody battle after bloody battle. It truly reminds me of Castiel on this. Later tonight we will do magic control where she will practice making forms using her POD and also focusing on how to make her attacks denser, but her main focus will still be on this machine of hell that we developed but NO ONE from the Tower likes to even look at.

I hope she is ready for this.

* * *

On a mountain not so far away

Issei P.O.V.

I was promised a harem.

"Un! Deux! Trois!"

I was supposed to be surrounded by magnificent Oppai.

"Raise your leg more, the movement must be more fluid if you want to learn New Kama Kempo."

"I DON'T WANT TO!" I was not supposed to be practicing ballet with an Okama.

"Nonsense, being an okama is the best. Now repeat with me; Un! Deux! Trois!"

"Un! Deux! Troy!" I repeated while trying to copy his movements. The only good part of it all was that I managed to get in contact with the spirit of my sacred gear.

* * *

An hour ago, after being taken to the mountain

Issei P.O.V.

"So here is a good place." Saying so this Okama throws me out after having carried me all the way here. This is a mountain on the outskirts of the region, the scenario is beautiful with a lot of flowers all around and a view of all the area with a great lake and many ancient trees.

"So… what are we doing?" I said with not a hint of enthusiasm in my voice, I mean how could anyone be enthusiastic with no oppai around. Ah, I miss you oppai.

"We will be doing physical training following the ancient tradition of my home." That peeked my interest a bit, if it can make me strong I will become a high-class (in the aristocratic sense) faster and will get a peerage of my own. The faster I obtain a peerage the faster I can become a Harem King, _My dream is one step closer now_. "It is a magnificent set of movements that are feared across the world, such that most when faced with a user run away."

"Oh, I want to learn that. What is the name?" I asked

" **Boy, do not ask that. Just run away, fast"** who said that?

"It is good that you are interested. I will teach you the incredible ancient art of the" Bon Clay continued talking. " _ **Newkama Kempo**_ , the techniques of the legendary Okama queen."

CRASH

I just fell on the ground immediately. I won't learn the fighting style of the okamas.

"Also before we start I want to ask, have you connected yourself to the spirit of your sacred gear yet?" The pink demon that wants to take me away from the holy world of oppai asked.

Supressng a grumble I said "No, I have not. Buchou explained it to me some time ago, but I never got to talk with Draig."

"Maybe I can help with that." He then turned to his nails… and talked to them? "Can you help out Iva-chan?"

" **Of course Bon-boy, HEE-HAH!"** his nails turned purple and shined while a strange voice that could be considerate masculine with a hint of femininity or feminine with a hint of masculinity.

"Let me present you, my nails are my sacred gear **hormone max** , a sacred gear passed only to Okamas with a pure maiden heart and a mans spirit. It has a similar aspect with your sacred gear in that the user receives a destiny, and, in my case, it is the destiny of being the king of all Okamas. My sacred gear also houses a spirit just like your case, the one inside mine is the **Okama God Emporio Ivankov.** "

I don't know if I got impressed at his sacred gear or scared in knowing there IS a god for all Okamas.

" **It is a pleasure to meet you, perv-booy."** The voice said. **"And until when do you intend on pretending of being asleep, Draigy."**

I feel like my gear is trying to get even deeper into myself just to not get in contact with Ivankov.

" **If you do not come out now I will tell EVERYONE the reason for the beginning of your fight with Alby-boy."** The voice said teasingly.

" **Don't you dare, weird one."** A voice came from my sacred gear. Is this Draig?

" **It wasn't without time; you were always too lazy."** Ivankov said teasingly. **"My host will train yours now so make yourself useful for once and transmit draconic energy through him. I will help as well, now go Bon-booy!"**

"Hay, Iva-chan." And with that, his nails turned into thin claws and before I could react he injected them into me. "Now that is much better. My sacred gear can control hormones and what I just did was over activating growth hormone and testosterone so as to make your muscles more powerful faster." He said after removing his 'claws' from my side. "Don't worry, it will not affect your size down there." A sweet-drop rolled out of my back and I sighed in relief at that last statement.

" **Work hard, perv-boy and you too draigy-booy."**

" **I refuse; I will only help my host after he has proven himself worthy of one as great as m-"**

" **Once upon a time, there were two little dragons."**

" **Ok, ok I will help. You evil entity, I should have killed you when I have the chance."**

" **Good, Ivankov always get what he wants HEE-HAH!"**

Then, after this talk, that made me more confused, Bon Clay decided to continue.

"Now let's start." And then he decided to explain our training. "Copy me till I say it is enough."

And with that I started copying him in dancing ballet, stretching and moving like he did.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

So much balet.

* * *

 _Omake_

 _The reason why the heavenly dragons went on their rampage_

Long ago there were two dragons. They were the best of friends and always fought side by side. It got to such a point where their powers could complement one another with one weakening their opponent and the other augmenting himself and his friend. They were the major symbols of power and masculinity to the whole dragon race.

One day, while traveling around they saw a king. The king was impressive but they were more so and after some time they defeated the king and stolen the crown that the king loved so very much.

The dragons laughed at this case, having done similar things many times before, but they never worried about retribution. After all, as long as they were together there was no one they feared.

Unfortunately, they made a mistake. A grave mistake. The king they stole the crown was not a king but a God, the God of Okamas and the supreme leader of Kamabaka Kingdom, the holy land of the Okamas.

Ivankov was patient, it would not rush to be humiliated again by the two dragons. He waited and waited until the dragons went home (they lived together on a mountain they stole from some no good goddess named Aqua) and decided to sleep. A dragon sleep is deep, really deep. Taking advantage of their sleep Ivankov entered their two rooms and injected them both two hormones and some pheromones. After doing his job he quickly and stealthily left.

When they woke up (almost in the moment Ivankov left) they looked at one another with a fire on their eyes… a passion fire.

"Come here and be my bitch Draig" the white one said jumping at Draig to subjugate and take him

"No, you will be my bitch Albion." Draig said jumping to dominate Albion.

The two hormones were the ones that made their dominating instincts over-react as well as the instincts for procreation. That in and of itself is not that terrible, if not for the fact Ivankov splashed both of them in so many of the pheromones that female dragons secrete when at the time of procreation.

And so the two heavenly dragons started an epic fight of WHO WOULD BE ON TOP. The fight was amazing, with many bites and attacks searching subjugation. It reached a state that they went in the middle of the battlefield that the three factions of Christianity were fighting, and from there it is history.

* * *

 **Writer's Note**

 **I know this chapter may be weird at some points, but it was the best solution I could think of.**

 **Also, I decided to make Kiba not having gone by the holy sword project. There was never this project on my fic as I have something else planned. Kiba, in this fic, was just a normal boy with a sacred gear so no avenger side for him. He is just someone that admires knight way too much (a chunnyobu for this).**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed and I am open for any ideas. Next chapter will start an arc that is non-canon for DxD but will have a lot of meaning for the future of the fic.  
**

 **Till next time.**


	20. Chapter 19

Castiel P.O.V.

"Soo... what was the mission again Cas?" Okuyasu asked while peeking his ear. Emily also seemed to be just as confused as I only said for her to come with me on a mission, she did make me promise to take her with me on my next one.

"The mission is simple, we are on an escort and protection mission for the daughter of a goddess from the Japanese pantheon. This pantheon is our ally for some time but some tension is rising as we are not too deeply connected to them, we do have many deals in trade of products and information but with a lack of any great shows of friendship, the alliance with them is getting unstable.

This mission may help alleviate this tension, I mean getting the heir of the Tower to go and help a member of the new generation of their side is a great show of goodwill on our side… or that is what Luvia told me. The real reason can be just that or something else entirely, who knows really? We just need to protect her and all is good." I finished my explanation.

"Fine, but why did we have to go through train instead of teleporting to Okinawa? I mean we could already be there and it would be much easier." Emily said while lying down on the chair and sitting her head on my lap.

"Because I wanted a couple get away with MY boyfriend, isn't that right Koro." Seryu said glaring daggers at Emily while hugging my arm.

On the cabin, we are there are only 5 people: me; Okuyasu; Emily; Seryu and one of the Sisters.

The Sister in question is eating one of my pudding I lost in a bet to her. I bet that a fight would break out in the first 5 minutes between the girls… the sister asked Seryu to accompany her to the toilet and after five minutes came back to take my pudding. The more I see her pleased expression the more I regret my decision.

"By the way, Okuyasu have you got any progress with your sacred gear yet?" I asked while ignoring the girls trying to kill each other with death glares, if there is one thing I learned after dating the girls (except Emily as we are not dating) is that in this sort of moments the best course is to pretend nothing is happening as long as they are not aiming at the vitals (and I do NOT mean when they ready their weapons as they may use it on ME if I move too soon).

"No, not really. I did understand the principle they are centered in but the way to improve is locked as far as I know. So no balance breaker at any close future."

"It may be because of the powers themselves. I mean, God made the gears but he would not be dumb enough to make one that can erase him of existence so he could have created _**the hands of the divine**_ but to allow a balance breaker on it is unlikely. If it could get to that state it would be classifiable atop-tier Longinus immediately." I proposed an idea and he nodded after thinking for a second. "And in other aspects, any improvement?"

"Just on my ki really. I just passed to the next level last week after talking to Lancer-sensei about it."

"Hoh, and how did you get to that point?"

"Well…"

* * *

A week ago, while Castiel was being hun… trained by Illya

Okuyasu P.O.V.

"Brat, come here." A loud voice that I believe belongs to the man with a Hawaiian shirt with a scary (as in my teachers' level scary) killing intent.

"What is happening Okuyasu-san?" the sweat and angelic voice of Asia asked me. She is a real angel.

"Nothing is happening Asia-chan. It is just that Lancer guy from earlier that came here looking for me, I will be back soon enough."

After going out of the medical center and following to where the voice called (he must have used some magic as his voice is ridiculously loud), which happens to be on a room styled as a coliseum, I see the blue-haired man from before. However, this time he is dressing an honestly embarrassing bleu leotard with silver lines all over it.

"Boy, I heard of your gear and want to see it in action. I hope you can give me a good fight, now come on." And with that Lancer rushed in my direction. He was too fast, for what I see he is not trying to go all out but he still is at least 3 times faster than me.

CRASH

CRACK

The heck, I could barely even activate my Ki to strengthen my body before he hammered me on the wall.

"Tch, is this all kid? For someone that has such a good weapon you seem to either be too stupid to use it or too slow." He said with an irritated tone, but then he shrugged his shoulders and continued. "Don't matter, just show me what you got."

And 'show' I did use all I could think of from scraping space to get him closer to a better range to me, to simply going at him and actually taking the initiative in attacking using my Ki to reinforce myself… nothing worked.

No matter what I did he just got evaded or took the damage with no visible effects, it was like I was a child trying to fight a bear, a spandex wearing bear but a bear nonetheless.

Suddenly it was like he got tired and just disappeared in a burst of speed to reappear on my back giving me a swift punch.

"The heck man, and I got all hopeful for a good fight here. Why don't you use your power as it should be used, you know eliminating your enemies from existence?" He asks with an annoyed face and tone of voice.

"I won't use this power directly on ANYONE that is not an enemy. I promised this to my masters long ago when they started training me." I still remember that day.

I had just lost my parents' thanks to that devil bastard, my master said that he figured out that I got one thanks to the feeling he got from my Ki. When I managed to actually manifest it and discovered its abilities they asked me what I intended to do with it, I decided then and there that I would not use it to hurt those that do not deserve it.

My masters approved of the decision but decided that for my future protection they'd train me on the use of Ki.

"Heeeh, but then you are wasting your capacity. You should be more direct with your attacks. 'There is an enemy so I will defeat him', 'he is an ally so I will buy him a booze', that kind of feeling." He gave me a look saying 'I expect one latter', I know that look as I saw them a thousand times with Sakaki-shishou. "You also sucks at using Ki. I mean, I never used it myself, but I got to fight some dudes that used it and there is something in them that you lack way too much."

"W-what is it Lancer-sensei." I ended up calling him sensei by accident, after all, he is quite like some of my teachers and he is teaching me here… in his own way, that seems to include being punched in the guts.

"You lack certainty. It is like you deep inside doubt you can do whatever shit you are going to do. 'Is this punch going to connect?', 'Am I going to win?', 'How should I fight?', that is what you have been thinking during all this spar we had and it annoys me to no end. Be confident in yourself, 'I already won' or 'I am the stronger one', without this thought pattern you will never get strong."

Saying that he just turned around and left, leaving me here with more doubts than certainties on my mind.

* * *

Present

Castiel P.O.V.

"… basically he called me to a spar and gave me some pieces of advice. After that, I started thinking about it and after some time I just passed to the next level on my Ki without realizing." Okuyasu explained.

I can already picture what happened on the spar he was talking about; I would bet that Okuyasu got his ass handed to him by Lancer that latter decided to give some pieces of advice just for the heck of it (he does that every once in a while) … even though I would not bet on anything right now as the Sister is eating the last spoons of my pudding with a smug and delighted face, that was MY PUDDING!

SNIFF

SNIFF

No, hold it together Castiel. Do not think of how delicious that pudding is but on what you will do on this mission. You will have another pudding latter, so don't worry.

At that moment she ate the last spoon and even showed me how clean the pot is before throwing it away. Dammit, I will never bet with one of the sisters again.

* * *

At the same time, in a dressing room

3° person P.O.V.

"… and this is your schedule for the rest of the week. Now if you will excuse me Miku-sama."

Just moments after she left a purple haired girl with an amazing figured gave a tired sigh. To be an idol was her dream for quite some time but the work it entailed was not.

"Finally. Why is it that my schedule is going more and more crazy. *sigh* Now I will even have to deal with some new bodyguards because my original ones were all called back. I just hope that they are competent and there are cute girls, no boys are needed but cute girls would be so good." And with that, the girl Miku Izayoi relaxed a minute before continuing to apply some make-up.

* * *

The Japanese Pantheon

In one of the many temples of the pantheon, two women are having a discussion.

"Are you sure that was for the best Mikoto-sama?" the first one asked

"You worry too much Yasa-chan." The second one, the goddess of dawn, mirth, and revelry called Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto A.K.A. Mikoto-sama said to her companion the leader of the Yokai faction Yasaka, the nine-tailed fox.

"It is not that I worry too much, it's just that you are to unpreoccupied about all this." Yasaka responded. "We may be allies but putting the security of your daughter in the hands of the people of the Tower is absurd. If something were to happen it could lead to a war between us."

"I totally agree that it may be a sparkle of a war, especially since the one going for the protection is the heir of the Tower himself." Yasaka gasped when she heard that, it may truly be a disaster on the making. While the Tower is not necessarily strong enough to challenge them directly they are close allies with both Norse and Greek pantheons while also having a close relationship with at least the houses of Phoenix, Bael and a close relation with Ajuka Beelzebub from the devil clans. "But the main reason of this 'escort mission' never was protecting my daughter."

Tilting her head Yasaka could not help but ask

"If that is the case what do you intend by doing this? Don't tell me you intend on sacrificing your daughter to sparkle a war because if that is what you intend I will stop you right here and now." Yasaka said with a serious glare and liberating some of her own powers that were massive enough for her to not fear the goddess in front of her. Her husband, on the other hand, was a completely different matter.

That guy was a monster that was better let unprovoked.

"Don't be foolish. All I want is a fun life for me and my family, something that a war now would make an impossibility. I am in a secret agreement with the director of the Tower, that woman called Rin Tohsaka, about a possible way of closing the gap that was forming in our alliance." Mikoto explained

"And this possibility is?" Yasaka decided to ask.

"Isn't it obvious. The best way to do that is what an alliance of this kind should be firmed into, a marriage."

"WHAT? Do you both intend on forcing the youngsters on getting a forced marriage?" Yasaka asked being quite a bit irked with the idea. Marriage for those in the supernatural world was extremely serious business as the marriage lasted for possibly thousands of years.

Forcing a marriage is cruel and on Yasaka opinion a loveless matrimony is not a good thing for anyone.

"'force' is such a strong word. No, I will make a chance for them to meet during this time and if they do not like each other we will simply try other girls till we find someone that actually is of sufficiently high status and would like the connection. My daughter was the first just because I was the one that proposed this plan for Amaterasu-sama." The goddess explained. "Also my husband agreed to go for it as he does want our daughter to be happy, and if she is with someone that can protect her appropriately during this times he will be quite relieved."

Yasaka could understand what her old friend meant. It may be forceful but this union still is something worth considering. But then she could not help but notice a detail on what Mikoto-sama said.

"What do you mean by 'during this times'? Is there something going on that is threatening Miku-chan?"

"*sigh* It is that damn group of stray zealots from the church. They seem to have moved some of their troops to Japan and it is worrisome. We doubt they will aim at the Yokai but us gods and goddesses and our descendants are a different matter altogether. They were quite extreme in the belief that 'there can only be one true god' so an attack is quite possible. But don't worry, I sent extra help for the group of the Tower." Mikoto said with a smile, knowing that said help would come at a great time and would be a pain to deal with.

Getting him away from the Pantheon for some time was just a bonus.

* * *

On a train going to Okinawa

A man with long blue hair in a ponytail was eating a bow of soba noodles while enjoying the silence. He was a man that had a serious personality that disliked noise and noisy people.

"Soba is good. It is simple and with no frivolous flavors, it is simply soba." Saying that and nodding to himself said men was about to eat another spoon when he heard a sound from the cabin behind his.

"No, this one is my pudding. You go and buy one yourself."

"I want to make another bet them, Misaka says while planning on how to scam young master for more deserts."

"No, you go and buy one. I just got one from the service on board of this train and I could only afford this one here."

"Hey, if you could only afford this one why didn't you wait and bought two when we got to our destination. Everything here is overpriced."

"No can do Okuyasu. I needed at least one or I'd go nuts from this one teasing me with the ones she ate."

"And they were delicious, Misaka says to provoke young master."

"If I could move I'd beat you up."

"So it is good that you are a ladies man, Misaka says while trying to see the reaction of the young master while planning on how to steal young master's pudding."

And such conversations were continuing on the cart beside his own.

The man with blue hair could be considered quite patient (according to himself) but these people are just annoying him so much. It was only during the times to and from the missions that he could truly relax, but now during one of his few 'me moments', there are some punks that are talking just so loud.

He gets up and decides to go there too, in an educated manner, tell them to do a bit less sound.

OPEN THE DOOR

"Would you idiots shut up for one freaking moment, you useless waste of space and air." And so he said with all the patience he had remaining.

Looking at the room there was a brown-haired girl pouting, a man that looks like a casa-nova with two women reclining on him (he immediately did not like this one) and one man that hearing what he said got up and stood up to the man with blue hair. The one facing him had a punk style with even a pompadour for some reason.

"What did you said, you fucker." with that a wave of Ki came out of the pompadour guy without he realizing it.

The blue-haired man noticing that took a step forward and asked

"Who are you guys? Answer me now or you will face death. " And in that instant, he too liberated a wave of Ki no weaker than the pompadour man himself.

The casa-nova one, with two women laying on his body, looked at the situation and decided to talk.

"We are agents from Tohsaka Tower going for a mission. We do not intend on acting against you but will not shrink from the challenge if that is what you want." And so he too liberated a wave of power that, while weaker in intensity had a dangerous feel to it, doing it, in part as intimidation, but mostly because the girls that were sleeping were getting uncomfortable with all those hostile energies surrounding them so by covering them on his own energy they got much more relieved.

The man with blue hair hearing this got an even more annoyed face but receded his own powers.

"Tch. So this are the ones I will have to work with, huh?" the man 'tch'ed again and was ready to leave when-

"It is rude to ask about someone and not say anything about yourself in return, mister ponytail-san." Okuyasu said in defiance. He did not know why but seeing this bastard got him REALLY annoyed, it could be the fact that he was rude just now or that he was more handsome.

Who knows for certain, the only certainty was that Okuyasu did not like that bishounen.

"I am part of the Yu family, working directly under Mikoto-sama on a mission." He then left but not before saying "Be quiet or I will come back to kill every one of you, bean sprouts."

And with that, the first meeting between the bodyguards to Miku Izayoi ended.

* * *

On an undisclosed location

"So what is our next mission, priest?" a woman asked with a sweet and gentle voice, she had no more than 16 with sickly gray skin and purple hair using a strange mask and clothes covering most of her skin asked a man in priests clothing.

"You will go to Japan with Lugh and a select group to an assassination mission. The target is Miku Izayoi, a girl that has the gal of considering herself a goddess due to her heretic parents." The man had a long hair done in a ponytail. He was relatively tall but a bit skinny and even while wearing clothes of the church he did not have a shred of holiness on his person.

"Understood, also about our deal…"

"Do not worry. We will do all we can to help cleanse you after your work is done." The woman gave a nod and left the room.

Shortly after the man could not contain himself anymore and just started laughing maniacally. "Yeah, we will cleanse you, of all the taint that you are you poisonous being. Keep working, working for us, the holy soldiers of the lord. We, the Iscariots."

* * *

 **Writer's Note**

 **Check out the novel "AOTD" from a friend of mine "HunterXkiller69". It is a great fic and I can assure everyone that it is much better than the source material (it is based on prototype 2, and that was a mess). Check it out and enjoy the ride.**

 **Also, all comments are wellcome. But constructive ones that say what you think it could be donne to improve the story are preffered. ;)**


	21. Chapter 20

Castiel P.O.V.

We finally arrived at our destination, our meeting point with our target of protection will be Tedako hall, it is quite a nice place. Good ambiance and quite beautiful, it is a wonderful spot for watching a show… if it wasn't for the company.

"Can you understand words or you troglodytes are too stupid for that? My mom asked for the best and I hope you can prove appropriate on a 2 kilometers radius as I do not want any troglodytes closer than that to me! Please disappear from this place, space, time and position of this universe."

And beside me, there are two others that are NOT making the situation any easier.

"What did you say? You ain't shit to go down your fucking high horse you b-" I gave him a punch on the sides before he gets the whole meeting even worse than it already is.

I know how you feel, but you must keep the decorum.

"Tch, from all the missions it had to be taking care of a spoiled brat along a bunch of idiots." The man with blue hair in a ponytail from the train, earlier identified as Kanda Yu, said with an annoyed face and no less self-importance than our protection target.

He is honestly an utterly annoying dude. Was it like this that Saber felt when she had to talk with Gilgamesh?

The moment we got in the hall the girls entered first while I and Okuyasu checked the perimeter. When we approached the room we heard laughter but as soon as we entered it stooped.

Okuyasu, as the fan he apparently is, tried to go and ask for an autograph but she started acting weird, meanwhile, the girls approached me and Miku simple exploded and her reaction was those words.

"*sigh* This is going to be a long mission." I commented while giving a good look at Miku. She was a 17 years old girl with an hour-glass figure (very developed in all the right places), long indigo hair and eyes. She had a mesmerizing face and a small nose that, combined with her body, gave her a mixed impression of a succubus with a fairy (and considering that I am a fiancé of two fairies I know what I am talking about).

She is wearing a beautiful dress of quite an idol style, being mainly yellow with details in blue and white ruffles covering some parts of it, with a yellow moon clip that had a glowed connected to it, and white flower petals. She also wore a choker around her neck with a white lily attached to it. She also had white gloves that went up to her biceps and high-heeled yellow shoes.

If there was one word to describe her it would be a blooming flower… if it wasn't the clear dislike she has of me and the other boys in the room.

"Whatever you say we are here to take care of your protection. As the leader of the protection team, minus the self-centered jerk there," I pointed to the man we saw on the train. " I want to introduce myself. My name is Castiel Emiya, heir of the Tohsaka Tower." I decided to introduce myself in the most professional way I could think of. Also by declaring my title, it would probably take her down a peg as my position is in no way inferior to her own. "This here is my team Emily Fujimura, Seryu Ubiquitous, Okuyasu Higashikata and one of the Sisters. Also, I'd like detailed information of your schedule so as to take better care of the security, also your request of us being in a 2 kilometers radius is simply impossible to follow as it would make the operation simple not work."

She gave me an annoyed glare. I bet that if it wasn't because it was obligatory for her to work with me she'd literally walk always right now after blowing me up.

"Un-pleasure to meet you, troglodyte. About my schedule, you may ask my secretary when she comes back, for the rest do not talk to me or let out your ugly voice. Also keep yourself outside the room, as you and these others wasted space on this vast universe pollute the air." She said.

Okuyasu is just about ready to punch her and the girls are not taking it much better, which I can understand. Kanda seem uncaring for the most part and I honestly do not care anymore, I will simply treat all she says as unneeded information.

I gave a slight bow leaving the room with most of the team but leaving Emily with Miku as even if we guard all strategic points it would be idiotic not to place at least one guard beside her at all times.

This will be a long week.

* * *

Later that same day

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We needed to go from one event to the next unstop with Miku sending death glares to me after she learned of my relationship with more than one girl, her choice words involving 'scum of the earth' and 'pervert of the century'. I take special offense of the last one as the title is in dispute between the trio at Kuoh or Azazel (what he did to Taiga was a dick move).

After a whole day working by her side and hearing her songs much more than I'd like Miku decided to approach me. Probably to complain some more.

"What have you thought, I am amazing right?" She said with a confident voice, a smile on her face.

I decided to answer her honestly, no point in trying to be nice or gentle with her as she is too annoying anyway.

"No, not really. While you do have a pretty voice your music feels empty to me." I told her, which made her freeze a bit.

Before long, she stops with that smile and starts looking possessed with me, if her red face and hateful glare are to be believed.

" **You love my songs** , right?" I feel that something tried to get in my head but it failed miserably.

Strange.

"No, not really." I answered honestly. I don't really like songs like those that don't feel like the artist even likes it. No true connection or emotion on it.

She seems shocked about something. Oh, I get it now. She was trying to influence my mind. But is it so surprising for me to be capable of defending my mind well enough?

"H-How is this possible? Everyone always listens to what I say, how can you ignore me?"

"Simple really, I am immune to all mental attacks. Yours may be strong but anything bellow mid ultimate-level is useless on me." I told her. This present of Zelretch is very useful, not perfect but useful no doubt.

"But I am a goddess." She exclaims after I answered her. Clearly shocked by it.

"You are the daughter of gods, not a goddess yourself. Now if you allow me I will look around the perimeter of the building as I am having a bad feeling." I say taking my leave after asking Seryu and the Sister to take care of Miku that still seems baffled.

While going out I could see that Okuyasu trying to mix up with the ordinary people in the building to be unnoticeable, but it works just as well as an elephant trying to be an assassin (I mean, look at that pompadour).

Kanda was just reclined on the wall no movement from him besides his glare that was always in anyone passing him by or on me and my team, he got serious anger problems. Letting this situation slide I went to the floor below.

We were on the third floor of a hotel that Miku will be having a handshake event later, I decided that it would be for the best to use my mystic eyes on the public so as to identify any great sinner as they are the most likely to try something.

After looking for any signs of great sin (fast way of finding assassins and evil in general) all I can see are minor ones like petty stealing, and defamation, or as I'd say any other day on a school.

Huh, what is that? As I decided to look out the window I noticed a white-haired man walking a bit far away, he has a considerable amount of sin surrounding him. It is mostly rape and murder and, considering the feeling I get from him, it is not necessarily in this order.

Shit, this may turn bad and fast. I better warn the others by a message while I go and eliminate this individual. I have no idea if he is after my target or not, but allowing something like him to go is not something I will accept.

"Guys we have a situation, I just noticed an individual on the outside that seems to be bad news. I will go confront him right now so while I am gone rise your protection over Miku. Understood?"

After a moment to process what I just said I heard a chorus of "Yes!" from everyone. Good, working with competent people is really great. Kanda seems uncaring for what I could see as he did not bother to give meany affirmation of what I just said, but I will count that he did.

* * *

Outside

As I approached the person I noticed how he looks like. He has silver-white hair and a pretty face for a man if it wasn't for the maniacal aura he is exuding. He is also wearing a priest cloth and with a necklace being a Rosario but no matter how you put makeup in poop it will still be poop.

"I wonder if there are any shit devils or devil lovers around here~? I want to see they screaming so much~." He then looked at me and seemed to realize that I got some reserves of magic on me. I left the mystic code Rin had made me home as it not only masks my power but it also impacts on my fighting strength, something I would never allow in a mission. "Hey shit blondie, do you know where I can find some shit to kill~? I want to kill and rape and kill and rape and kill some more to quench my boredom."

I stayed silent while getting closer to him. I could feel a considerable amount of magic energy in him, probably mid mid-class. Depending on what weapon he has and if he has a back-up or not this could end up bad. I better use that item, it may be a waste but this place is too public to fight and I must end it quickly.

His grin starts to get even bigger seeing me approaching him.

"What is this~? A little shit that is unafraid of dying? I love to make those kinds scream like little girls, it gets me so turned on!" He lunged at me without a second thought and without realizing the small cube I throw at him.

This small cube shinned fast and the light covered both of us, now is the time for a true deathmatch.

* * *

Death Arena

"Where are we you little shit?" The white-haired 'priest' asked.

"This here is the death arena, a special zone made by Tohsaka Tower using the principles of a reality marble. It has two effects, it brings those in its area of effect in this space and locks the two sides in a death match. No one can leave here until at least one of us is dead." I explained.

It also has an additional effect of being capable of transferring a small part of the losers' energy or a weapon he carries to the winner; the downside is that even I can't leave or communicate with the exterior world while in here and that the energy levels of the two sides must not be too far apart.

I used this even though I don't like it as a precaution, because if he was to run he could cause much more problems later on.

"Kakakaka, so this is a battle to the death? Just the way I like it!" And with that, he launched himself again at me. He is fast, not as much as Kiba but still faster than any regular human could be. Before I could think it further his sword of light came on an overhead strike that I parried with my **sword of Kupriotes.**

The pressure of his strike is surprising but still not enough to overwhelm me. With a push, I throw him back but he just came back, starting an assault that was as ferocious as it was unstoppable. It seems like the is unaffected by the charisma that the sword bestows on me, this is troublesome. Charisma is great in that it weakens the opposition fighting spirit but if the opponent is mad he can just outright ignore it.

The attacks continued, but there is no technique on them. He is just a rampaging beast that happens to have a sword. Let's finish this with a strike to the belly.

PIERCE

Before he could react I pushed my sword on his belly, hitting many important organs. As I feel and saw the blood gushing out I felt that it is ov-

BANG

A light bullet pierced my shoulder right through.

Shit, how is he still alive? And since when did he took out that gun? I took my sword out of his wound and jumped back so as to get some distance from him, afterward I took out a phoenix tear I had on me, it may not restore the blood but the injury is gone.

"Did you think this was over? Idiot. You haven't even seen my final form."

And with those words he started changing, his body started growing with many tentacles on his back. He got a horn on his head and tusks in his mouth, his hair got longer and nails became like knives. His skin became green colored and he even grew a tail.

How the hell my detection spell still sees him as a human is beyond me, but the fact that he is a beast is unmistakable.

Let's test the waters.

I hushed toward him and tried to give a swipe aimed at his arm, but the sword failed in its work as it could not cut him properly. It only penetrated around 4 centimeters.

It is almost like his own skin was turned into very small scales, now that I take a closer look, and his flesh is awfully hard to cut.

I could not take much more observations as he turned his eyes to me and two of those tentacles on his back were launched directly in my direction. All I could do was throw myself back, not daring to jump for fear of him sending more of those when I could not evade them (I HATE not being capable of proper flight).

As I used my sword to parry his tentacles I started to think about what my next action should be. I realized then that Kupriotes is in a disadvantage against him, it is a sword made for a king to command an army not fight a beast alone. Also, it is not a true noble phantasm so its specs are far from this level of battle. Lucky me I still have one of the other two gifts my dead left me, and this one is a perfect match for the situation.

Dodging his strikes as fast as possible I deposited Kupriotes and took out another sword. It is an all-black greatsword of around 1,5 meters. It was made apparently made of two plain contorted metal put together as the blade, and with no ornaments or any superfluous detail or anything of the kind, but it had a chain attached to a handcuff that I must put on before I can use the blade.

Despite its plain appearance, it is probably among the strongest swords there are on the world, carrying within it the spirit of an ancient world-devouring wolf (provided by Zelretch, one of his presents that actually were good for anything except to make him laugh) allowing it to have a ferocity embedded on it like no other.

This is the reason why that damn piece of shit that calls himself Beowulf descendent decided to make a rash decision that made us from the Tower serve out the connection to the Gremory clan.

This is the hound of the red plains **Hruting**. A cursed blade that I honestly love to use, but can't use unless it is in this sort of setting. Now, fighting a beast somewhere where there will not be any possibility of being overpowered by numbers or risking getting my comrades in the crossfire.

Seeing this new sword the beast did not seem to care as it throwing itself at me with claws first. I simply swing the sword and it automatically aims for a weak spot on the underside of the left elbow of this creature while pulling myself to his left, the left that no longer had a hand.

As soon as I finished the cut I feel a surge of strength caused by the curse on the blade that absorbers the blood of the enemy rising the user's parameters in exchange for eroding on my mentality. It is like it grants an artificial Mad Enhancement, reason why I am grateful for another gift Zelretch left me on my 11 birthday.

"The hell? How can you wound this awesome me now that I unleashed the beast transformation?" He said with shock, but it did not last long as he continued with his deranged face of before. "You know what? It doesn't matter, I got healing capacity to heal faster than you can damage me. I will just devour you now!" And with those few words, he launched himself at me again. Unfortunately, he was proven right as he took the arm that was 'detached' and positioned it back on its original position and not even a moment later he was moving his left arm as if normal.

To make sure that the bad news was even worst it seems that since he used this beast transformation his powers have risen to mid high-class level. He still is using his relentless battle 'style' in that he simple attacks non-stop without a care in the world, fully trusting the healing capacity his body seems to have.

He uses claw swipes, tail attacks, bites and even uses those tentacles at me to try and perforate my body. Unfortunately for him, he is exactly the type of enemy less suited to face **Hruting**.

No matter how many times he launches an attack, or even if he tries to run, I simply cut him again and again on his weak spots. He tried to use a claw swipe, I cut his tendons open and puncture his lungs when his arms drop. He tries a tail attack and I cut his tail off. He tries to perforate my body with the tentacles, I cut them all. He tries to bite me and I cut off his eyes.

Large beasts are the preferred target of this sword. This and armies but I can't use it against any group. The curse would get too strong and even with the gift from Zelretch I still can't give it enough energy to accomplish the sword full potential I can only go up to 40%.

After about five minutes fighting like this, I had already cut him at least 400 times but he still hasn't fallen down. Actually, he seems just fine. His healing is sickening fast, whoever made him (as I doubt this monstrosity is natural) must have used fused with a hydra, or something like it, to make him heal this fast. If it wasn't me he was facing he might have won even against much stronger opponents due to sheer exhaustion.

"What is wrong, sword boy? Tired already? Too bad as I am just getting started, meal time." And so he rushed at me again. *sigh* Doesn't he knows anything else? He is honestly an annoying bastard, he is no more than a crazed lunatic that happened to be used for an experiment that honestly should never have happened.

"Too bad, the time is up to you. Rot in hell you freak. **O** **pen Wounds"** I used one of my personal curses, one of the few I created from scratch.

It has a simple and devastating effect of opening the wounds suffered in the last hour. I made it for the case I face someone with a high healing capacity. After going to field missions long enough you start to see what is useful for certain special cases such as this.

After I activated the spell he almost exploded, I inflicted so many wounds during this fight, and he might have been able to heal them all, but it was on a limited number of wounds at a time. When he received a larger amount of wounds it took longer for him to heal as he could not heal himself all at once.

Now that he has already weakened somewhat as he needed to regenerate for too many wounds. No matter the species they always spend some amount of energy on regeneration, according to what Riser told me and considering that he is from the Phoenix clan I trust he knows what he is talking about.

No more than seconds after I activated the curse this fake priest finally died due to blood loss. No final words as I did remove his tongue at least 4 times during the fight. Who lets their tongue out like that and expects the opponent to not take advantage of it?

I sit down on the arena itself, after depositing Hruting on my special space again, so as to eliminate the curse that it put on me. Even if it doesn't inflict any bad side effects right now, just reinforcing my parameters, it still is dangerous to let a curse circulate on the body for too long.

Sakura-sensei always warned me about this and made sure I understand that.

As I removed the curse from my body I noticed a small amount of holy energy entering my body. It seems that as the winner I got a small amount of the holy energy that this damn priest had.

Better than nothing I guess… if it wasn't for the fact that I suddenly feel much worse than before. It is a burning sensation on my back and nerves, too weak to kill me but enough to sting in most of my magic circuits. It seems that this affinity fused with my circuits capacity over blessings, rising them a small bit but the pain itself that I feel is strange.

Well, nothing to do now besides getting out of here, the body of the opponent is generally absorbed by the field reinforcing the field for the next fight (recycling at its best). What can I say, it truly is a death arena.

* * *

Outside

I am finally out. In there is just plain awful, the smell is terrible and the death and curses in there are just too strong. It is ideal for my curses but any blessing I try to put into another person is almost fully useless in such environment. Now it is best to call the others and tell I am fine and ask a report about what happene-

BOOOMMM!

Fuck, it is just one thing after the other with me.

I hope everyone is fine.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **In case someone didn't get the names I will explain the origins from some of the characters now:**

 **-Seryu - Akame Ga Kill;**

 **-Okuyasu Higashikata - Jojo Bizarre adventures part 4: Diamond is unbreakable (it is a mix of Okuyasu and Josuke, mostly to make Okuyasu smarter);**

 **-Kuroko, Sister - To aru majutsu no index;**

 **-Yuzuru, Kaguya, Miku - Date a Live;**

 **-Kanda Yu - man;**

 **-Bon Clay - One Piece;**

 **-Liselot Sherlock - Trinity Seven;**

 **Also, if the jokes are a bit strange and a 'rip-off' from other places I must inform you all of something:**

 **-I won't apologize.**

 **For those that are confused about the weapons that Castiel has it is 4:**

 **-Sword of Kupriotes (the sword of Iskandar, not a noble phantasm);**

 **-Gandiva (bow of Arjuna);**

 **-Hruting (cursed blade of Beowulf);**

 **-? (this one will be revealed later);**

 **And one last thing, I am thinking about who I should make as Illiya's new creation. I have some ideas but I would like to hear the opinion of everyone so please PM me or put your opinion of who it could be on a review.**


	22. Chapter 21

A few minutes earlier

Emily P.O.V.

It seems that Castiel used the death arena. I hope he is fine, he may be strong but he's not invincible and in there he can only count on himself.

No time to worry about that, I must stay focused. If the enemy is to strike it must be now. I will do what Castiel asked me.

As I was waiting to see if there would be movement and any attacks I noticed some auras in the distance. It is probably some fallen and a few humans with holy energy, I did learn how to identify and detect enemies relatively easily after getting some tips from Yuno.

Bitch she may be but she is damn good at searching and detection, probably learned it just to stalk Castiel.

"Guys we have company. I sense about 10 enemies surrounding the area, all around low mid-class but there could be more hidden away." I explained. While I am much worse than Yuno whom can detect anything in an area of kilometers I can at most sense in a 500 meters' radius of myself. That is why I usually go on some of this escort missions when Yuno is busy.

"I will go to the rooftop to see if I can lower their numbers and eliminate any reinforcements, Misaka says while not waiting for confirmation."

"Fine. Seryu, protect the target from anyone that may get past us, I will go to the front entrance to 'welcome' our guests." I said while redirecting myself to be in a position that would allow me to do just that. I also activated some of the seals we put in the building to mask our presence and redirect the normal humans away from here. It is a shame that we couldn't prepare some for the outside of the building or Castiel wouldn't have used the death arena.

"Understood captain." I can almost few Seryu giving a salute to the message, she is too militaristic. "A question, what about Kanda-san and Okuyasu?"

"No need for your useless worry, pumpkin hair. I will do what I was requested and protect the target, even if she is an annoying brat." Wow, talk about being gentle. He is the type that will never get a girlfriend if she is not a saint.

"I will go to the back door. Someone needs to look there as who knows what these little fuckers may do." Okuyasu said. He may use rash words but he is not incompetent.

"Ok team, let's go and do our job."

"""Roger!"", says Misaka."

* * *

Up the roof

3° person P.O.V.

On the roof, the form of one of the Sisters can be seen.

"Four targets on the sky, probable reinforcements in case of emergency, says Misaka theorizing about their motivation. It is time to show my awesomeness, says Misaka in what she believes is a triumphant voice." Which unfortunately was not. If anything her voice, like her face was almost entirely unemotional.

The low capacity of showing emotions in the face and voice was one the few defects of all Sisters. That and their limited mana capacity and small pool of skills they could actually use, all electric based.

To get around that a series of devices was made to better use the relatively weak amount of electricity all sisters can produce, unique weapons that work well just because of their abnormal mental processing capacity.

First was a special visor over her eyes that allowed to see at greater distances along with being capable of seeing all the different electromagnetic fields in the area. This not only lets the user see any target even when hidden by magic, but, in the case of any Sister and their electric capacity and control, also manipulate those magnetic fields in the air to help the true weapon they all carry.

This weapon is a special rifle capable of shooting small metal projectiles using electromagnetism by amplifying the electric capacity of a Sister unit. For anyone else it would be next to useless as calculating how to introduce the thunder in the gun is beyond simple complicated, it is borderline impossible for anyone that is not a Sister. When the shot is made in conjunction with the visor that allows for a Sister unity to control the magnetic field in a large area it let the bullet to travel at a sped equivalent to Mach 3, or in other words…

BANG

It is freaking fast and furious.

Looking through the visor the Sister could see that one of the targets had her (and yes it was a she) head blow off. With no pause, she recharged the gun and took aim at a second one that was still confused by the sudden death of the first one. After 2 seconds to charge the Sister shot another bullet hitting her target that was still looking around for their attacker, the bullet that reached them in under 2 seconds managed to get on the chest of the second target, killing him instantly.

The last two realizing the direction of the shot and the time for a new one decided to risk it all by flying straight for the attacker. Unfolding their 4 wings they took flight while creating light shields in front of them for protection.

Seeing this but remaining unfazed by the new development the Sister just reloaded her gun and took aim to shot down another one of her targets. Realizing that her choice of position (on top of a tower with close to no footing) she jumped off of her position and while on free fall finished charging and with a pull of her trigger managed to hit another one. Even with the shields, it would not be enough as the gun could pierce any shield from anyone lower than mid high-class.

The result was that the third one has been killed and the final fallen finally reached the Sister. He was an attractive young man with blond hair, violet eyes and sophisticated air around him. He is the type that would look in place in a social gathering more than a battlefield… if not for the murderous look on his face and the bloodlust that he was emanating.

"Are you the bitch that killed my men?" he asked with a spear of light on hand.

"Yes, Misaka affirms unafraid." And while they were talking she took out her own weapon for CQC. It was a pair of pistols that look like the ones exorcists use but with a lightning symbol on there and two small knives attached to it.

Without waiting for an answer from the fallen, the sister started shooting her guns at him. The man noticing her movements created a shield of light in front of him. The shield could hold the bullets but each bullet cracked the shield a bit.

The bullets were of high caliber with fake diamond tips for better penetration while the gun could carry a certain degree of electricity for a pseudo-railgun that shot the bullets at a speed of sound making its penetrative capacities amazing.

Realizing that the more he waits the bigger the chance of the shield breaking, even with him reinforcing and recovering it continuously, the fallen decided to attack her up close with his light spear.

He came with a pierce straight to her chest but she sidestepped and started going head to head with him in a close combat using the two guns as no more than knives, a technique that the sister`s learned called gunkata.

Failing to hit his target he redirected himself and went for a swipe that aimed at her neck, which she dodged by crouching and jumping with the aim of using her knives on his guts, which also failed as he simply leaned back and by propelling himself forward after her attack missed aimed for her legs. She jumped back taking advantage of the momentum of her previous attack but he did not let her take distance. And so they continued this sort of close quarters fight. It was quite balanced for some time but after a minute of high-intensity movements, the Sister made a small mistake by allowing an opening on her stomach area when she raised arms at him on her shoulder line to try and get a shot at his head.

A mistake that the fallen did not let go to waste as he dropped to a crouch and then pierced a hole right through her guts with all his strength.

"Ha, take that your pathetic bitch. That is what you get for killing my man!" He says that but when he was about to remove his spear of her, seeing her blood dripping out of her mouth and believing that she was as good as dead, his wrists were grabbed and she turned to him with a poker face liberating all thunder and lightning that she could at once.

By taking it directly on his body with no previous preparation to receive such a strike he had an instantaneous heart attack, dying right then and there.

After he fell she looks at him and says:

"I am no ordinary human, you bitch, says Misaka with venom and annoyance in her voice for being called that by her enemy." And after saying that she took a syringe filled with Phoenix Tears.

"I am a homunculus, it would take much more than just a single wound like that to kill me, says Misaka proud of her being what she is."

* * *

Back entrance

On the back entrance, another battle was about to start. Three individuals in priest's clothes approach the door.

"Ha, see that? No guards here. Stupid idiots never thought about guarding the back door." One of the three said.

WOOOM

Suddenly a brash looking man with a scar on his face and a pompadour appeared in mid-air in the middle of the three.

"Think again, idiot" And with that Okuyasu taking advantage of his appearance and took the one that was talking with his arms and pulled him in for a knee on his face. After getting hit with a knee on the face he was momentarily stunned and while stumbling he did not see the Ki empowered punch to the gut that Okuyasu delivered. The result was that the first one was downed before any of the invaders could react.

"Get him." The two remaining enemies said almost simultaneously, taking out their light swords.

But, before they could react Okuyasu make a swipe movement with his hand and disappeared of his spot to reaper at more than 20 meters away. Not expecting that they could not react for when Okuyasu turned to them with a victorious smile and decided to do something that could be utterly useless IF it wasn't him. He decided to go with a flying spin kick while making a swipe motion with his hand. The result was that one of the remaining opponents was pulled to right in front of Okuyasu, right in the way for his kick to connect to the side of his head.

Seeing his two companions being downed so quickly the exorcist decided to change tactics by taking out his pistol and start shooting. Taking advantage of that Okuyasu made another motion with his hand to reappear at a larger distance.

Believing that this was a great chance the exorcist took a strange pill and ate it. It immediately raised his power as his skin turned red and eyes became pure white, all his bullets started getting much brighter and faster forcing Okuyasu to keep running on foot as he needed some time to actually made the motion of his sacred gear ability. Seeing his opponent run the priest started laughing maniacally.

"Run, keep running you ridiculous haired bastard."

"What did you just said?" And with that Okuyasu stopped moving. He glared with popping veins on his face that turned fully stoic at his enemy and using his Ki to reinforce his muscles managed to swipe his hand fast enough to eliminate from existence the bullets that were approaching him.

"What, the part of you keep running? The bastard part? Or was it about the shitty hair?" the exorcist asked gloatingly. He took aim and fired at least another found of 12 light bullets at his enemy.

"You die!" and with that and a furious face, Okuyasu raised his hand in a palm form aiming at his opponent and combining his Ki and the unique energy that his gear possessed to release a personal attack that he made based on a show he loved.

" **Big Bang Attack**."

The Ki strike turned into pure energy that swallowed not only the enemy bullets but the enemy himself. The result was that the opponent was burned to a crispy and barely alive.

"NEVER talk about my amazing hair again, idiot."

* * *

Front entrance

At the front entrance, there existed a large hall. It was built like a small coliseum with many pillars of that style and all clean spotless. It really gave off the vibe of a fancy hotel.

In here the last 3 invaders entered. They tried to look like just another face on the crowd but considering that the three of them were wearing gray overcoats and hats inside and were all walking together it could be said that they were failing miserably.

After getting inside they realized that almost instantly all people that were walking normally got out of there with a glazed look on their faces.

"Don't worry. It is just a small barrier we put so as to make sure that we would not involve the civilians in our business."

Looking around the room for the one that just spoke they saw who it was. It was a beautiful girl of about 16 with brown hair, black eyes, pretty face and a well-endowed body. But the most important part was the aura she exuded, it was very much like the one they carry.

"What is another fallen doing here? We are on an official mission by Kokabiel-sama, get out of our way." The one with the higher amount of energy said. He was confused by what a fallen would be doing defending a heretic bitch but he believed that as long as he told his boss' name the girl would get away from them.

"Oh, so it is Kokabiel that commanded this attack? Good to know, and also I won't get out of here as I do not work for the Grigory." She said with a small smirk on her face.

"Not from Grigory but clearly having fallen angel power?... Oh, I know you." The leader of this small squad said. A sardonic smile surged across his face. "You are the result of our leader knocking up that dumb chick from the Tower right? I heard of that, that Azazel-sama did not want any kid and just dumped your mother as soon as he discovered that she was carrying a small bastard up her belly. Ha, if you ask me I'd have killed the bitch so as to not give birth to any half-breeds like you."

Emily's smile disappeared from her face upon hearing that. She could be a lay girl that hated training with passion and not very girly most of the time but she will NEVER let anyone talk bad about her mother. NEVER.

She took out her spear, **Trap of Argalia** , of and put it diagonally in front of herself. Seeing that as a sign all of the involved released their wings. On the invading side, two had 4 wings being both high mid-level and the leader had 6 wings being low high-level. Believing in their superiority they did not put their guard up, on their eyes they were fighting an infant bastard that was not even fully one of the glorious fallen angels so they simply did not think of her as a threat.

That thinking stopped as she released her own six wings liberating her mid high-level power. Using those wings as leverage points she launched herself managing to pierce right through one of the mid-class fallen before he could properly react. The momentum was so strong that she ended up going right through him, ending the life of that fallen instantly.

"With me!" The leader said and with that, his subordinate came close to him to help protect each other's back. As the floor they were in was too small to fly and to full of pillars, they could not take their usual approach. "Let's go outside!" And saying that they both fled to the outside as fast as possible. Facing a more powerful opponent in a disadvantageous environment was NOT a good choice after all.

As they flew at fast speed they were accompanied by Emily that was at a small distance throwing spears of light at them. They defended the best they could, but they were not all that successful taking many graze shots, making they covered in blood. Not any truly dangerous amount or big damage but it did ruin their appearances.

"I will go first bo-" and that was as far as the 4 winged fallen managed to go before being sliced up by the many extremely thin threads of light that Emily put on the door as soon as the last human got out. She makes all that speech and talks to her enemies for no other reason but to distract them as she put this set of threads all over the door and used a small illusion magic at it to keep it hidden.

Getting terrified by the quick development that was happening the leader stopped moving. That was not the best choice as during that moment Emily decided to take advantage of as she threw her spear at him. The good part is that he managed to avoid a direct hit, just getting a graze on the side. The bad part was that the skill of the spear was activated, it led to him losing his mobility by falling to his knees.

"This is the end for you." Saying that Emily pulled her spear back with an extremely thin thread that was connected to the base of it. Seeing the situation deteriorating the leader decided to bet it all on a light spear using all his energy, not that Emily would allow it as she made a pulling notion and took all the threads one meter ahead of their previous location. The leader that was focusing all of his powers on his lance failed to see the threads on time and as a result, was cut into many pieces.

Seeing the gory state of her opponents the only thing on Emily's head was 'I better clean this up before Castiel sees it, he is always telling me that I should not leave a mess after all'.

The sight of a pretty girl burning corpse pieces was fortunately not seen by anyone, especially the fact that she gave a kick at the ex-leaders' crotch corpse. It was better this way, less fuel for nightmares.


	23. Chapter 22

3° person P.O.V.

Corridor in front of Miku's room

TREMBLE

Another slight tremor happened at the hotel. Hearing this a scowl appeared on the face of a young man.

"Tch, noisy bastards. They are doing too much of a ruckus." Said young man with a long ponytail blue hair said.

He was not what anyone could define as a patient person. He just wanted to complete his work and that was it.

And speaking of work, some 'work' found him as he heard steps approaching him in the corridor. Looking for the responsible and probable enemy he saw a young woman approaching. She had a moderate bust, white-hair done in a ponytail, not unlike his own, was wearing a typical Japanese yukata loosely and was wearing a black eye-patch.

She was either a cosplayer or a cosplayer enemy for Kanda. Both deserved death for him.

"Is this the room of Izayoi Miku?" The girl that looked about 16 or 17 asked in a bland voice.

"It does not concern you, hentai woman. Go always before I cut you up." Was the more educated answer that Kanda was willing to give.

"That is just rude, I just asked a simple question." The woman said with an unamused tone. "Oh well, if someone of your level is here so the target is probably not far away so I will just have to terminate you to find her."

Saying this the woman took out two swords. Each of them was different but the power they radiated was devastating.

"These are my two babies. **Hrotti** and **Crocear Mors**. Let's see if you can match them." And so the woman launched herself at him.

She just needed one stroke of **Hrotti** for its effect to be shown. As soon as Kanda sword touched the blade he could feel a force of impact so great that he was thrown a large distance always. Strangely, it was not that the power was too strong but he simply could not touch the blade without being thrown back.

"Did you like that. This is the effect of this one, no blade can cross its path." After saying that he lifted her other sword and it shinned with an ominous light, as she made a cutting motion Kanda felt like he was carrying a bolder on his back. "And this is the skill of **Crocear Mors** , to command the gravity itself."

The only thing in Kanda's head seeing this situation is that it was not going well. He could not cross swords with his opponent and she could control gravity, neither of those is to his advantage.

'It does not matter' was the conclusion he got after thinking of everything. He simply raised his own katana and passed his fingers from the base to the tip of the blade. When he did that the whole atmosphere he gave off changed.

" **Mugen** activate." And with that, his sword showed its true power by cutting right through the gravity that was holding him down.

Taking advantage of that instant that the gravity returned to normal he activated his Ki to the max and disappeared off the spot he was to reappear beside the woman.

He went with a direct strike to her sides but she simply took one step back to avoid it. She then used **Hrotti** to strike him on the belly but failed as he used his scabbard to defend.

It was one of the effects of Mugen that allowed the scabbard to not be cut by the blade of **Hrotti** as **Mugen** and its scabbard could share energy letting the scabbard be covered with a large amount of Sword-Ki (Writer note: Imagine that when he activates Mugen the scabbard and the sword are covered in Ki that is modified by the sword itself to get the characteristic of CUT, giving both the characteristic of extremely well-made swords).

Showing some surprise on her face the woman moved a few meters back. But what was surprising for Kanda was that it, despite not being teleportation, might as well have been for how fast she moved.

"What is the name of that blade?" The woman asked with strange eyes.

"It is **Mugen**. It is the masterpiece of my family and our greatest treasure." Kanda said without taking his eye off of his opponent. He did not bother to explain its effects as doing so would be meaningless to him.

"Treasure, huh. I want it." And with those words, the woman ran towards Kanda. He tried using his prided speed but she was simply many times faster, and before he could realize she had given him a cut on the shoulder.

That would normally be a much larger problem as it would difficult the movements of the said shoulder, but Kanda's case was peculiar.

When the woman turned around to look at her work and see the bleeding (and possibly dropping the treasure) she saw that the bleeding was receding already as his skin was closing.

"If it is just this much you cannot beat me." Kanda said with considerable confidence.

"So I just need to go faster." She then put herself in a relaxed position and said. "Activate, **Hermes sandals**." With that, her shoes sprouted tiny wings and she shot herself on Kanda. It was like she turned into the pure wind as Kanda sprouted many injuries all over his body, while all he could see was a flash of steel.

There were simply too many cuts all over his body any lesser man would have gone to his knees or outright died, but not Kanda. He put his sword on the floor and used it as support, but did not fall.

"That is surprising, I was hoping for you to fall and leave me with the treasure." The woman said.

"Ha, as if I'd fall that easily. I will survive, and I will win. **Mugen** , **Ascending Flower**." Saying that Kanda started overwhelming with Ki and energy, the amount was much higher than before. His pupils got three black spots and veins were also raised over his eyes.

He went in the woman direction and started fighting her, fully ignoring the wounds he already sustained.

" **Ripping flash claw.** " he said while liberating with one movement seven beans of light. The woman still managed to evade them all… but a small cut was made on her leg.

"That is surprising. I thought you were much weaker but you are quite strong. The more I look the more I want your treasu-"

" **THUNDER** " interrupting their talk a giant beam of thunder broke in the middle of the two fighters. Looking for the source they found a big man, easily 2 meters tall, with a physic to match. He was covered in a yellow armor that looked like thunders covering him. "We don't have time for this. The assassination failed, that little bitch did not manage to put a dagger on that goddess. And worst, I forgot MY SWEATS." He screamed that last part, letting some thunder flow outside of his body, destroying everything in the corridor that was not already destroyed.

"I understand." The woman then turned to Kanda and said. "Keep your treasure close, I will come to take this treasure later. And remember, the one that will obtain your Mugen is me Lugh." With that, she turned around and walked away. Kanda tried to go and kill the girl but failed as the giant of a man launched another thunder in a more widespread way, which managed to actually hit him.

When Kanda managed to move again they were both long gone.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Miku's room

"You useless bodyguard. See here," Miku said giving a steric attack while pointing to her arm. "I got a cut right here and needed to defend myself. What is the use of bodyguards if they can't protect me?"

"Give me a second Miku-san. I need to listen to the report of everyone so as to better prepare for a next attack. Also, I will need to make sure that this wound is not infected by any poison so I will purify it in a few minutes. I would do it now, but I need to see if there is anyone else in need so as to heal everyone together." I then turned to the team and saw that they were with minor wounds, nothing serious for the most part but there was one much more serious case.

I turned to the dog that was in its gigantic form with his owner inside its mouth.

"Is Seryu poisoned or dying?" Koro gave a small nod sobbing quietly. I clenched my fists in pure hate. "Take her out, I will purify her and make sure that the poison on her is all gone."

Koro looked cautiously at me. He always was quite protective of his master, but he knew that I was the best chance.

He looked at me seriously and let his owner out of his mouth. Looking at her broke my heart, her skin was turning purple and she looked in absolute pain. Seeing this woman that I loved in such pain made me want to punish whoever did this to her. I called Miku closer and asked her to stay as close to me and Seryu as possible as I activated one of the presents Zelretch gave me.

This is probably the moment I am the gladdest of being his godson. If it was not for this, I would not have this item. It was a spirit bone, an item born from the body of a 100 thousand years' spiritual beast. A spirit beast was a creature of another reality that cultivated a special kind of energy, there were many different species and when one such beast got to 100 thousand years' they could, upon death, generate such an item.

Spirit bones are capable of making the user's body stronger and carry some abilities that the beast had. In this case, I am using a left leg spirit bone called **purity dragon king leg**. It has two skills, but I only need one of them right now.

After I activate the spirit bone it appeared covering my left leg and from the bone, a white halo covered the area **.** This halo is called **Pu** **re sky** , it can cleanse everything covered by it in a light capable of eliminating any and all poison or evil powers in the area. It even has an effect on demonic powers, but only if I will it to.

After I activate said power as a black smoke started leaving Seryu's body and Miku's arm, proving that even if she did not feel a thing there was a poison there. Sparing just a quick glance at Miku my attention continued to be focused on Seryu, seeing all that poisonous smoke made my heart clench. I will make sure that whoever did this pays for it.

One minute later no more poison was leaving her body and it was clear that she was stable now. She was just sleeping.

I liberated a breath I didn't even know I was holding. It was too close. If it wasn't Koro holding her in his mouth she would have died long ago, whatever this poison may be it was terrifying.

"*sigh* Now can we begin the explanations about what the hell happened? Emily, report." I said in a no-nonsense voice. My patience was not much at all right now.

"I noticed that there were invaders, around 10 of them, coming to the building a minute after you went to the death arena. I decided that we should split as the opponents were in separated positions. I went to the front entrance as it had the most space for putting traps and gave more mobility.

"I sent Sister to the rooftop so as to eliminate anyone she saw in the distance, Okuyasu on the back door to as it had a considerable big clearing on the front which was good for him. Also, I sent him there as I felt that there were just human warriors and not fallen that were capable of flight so he could take care of them. I let Kanda on the front of Miku's door as I can't command him and also let Seryu here as a last line of defense. All those I detected were eliminated but it seems that at least three targets passed through my detection and our eyes and reached here." She explained all at once and with no delays.

She may be lazy in the day-to-day life, making me take care of everything for her (and I do mean everything, including cleaning his clothes), but she does know how to be professional on missions. Especially when I get pissed.

"Kanda, can you tell us what the one who fought you looks like. The skills and whatever else you can remember of her or him?" I asked.

"No." was all he eloquently said.

"I have no time for your pettiness. We need to know what is coming for us." I said raising my voice… his only answer was having an annoyed scowl while looking at the wall. Maybe I need another tactic. "Maybe you'd prefer to let our protection target die huh. How the mighty have fallen, to think that a member of the Yu family would let his pettiness in the way of his job. Really, such a petty person."

Hearing this he looked positively livid. Like, to the point of testing his sword against my jugular possessed. But he seems to be capable of seeing my point… even if he did not like it.

"Tch, fine. There were two offenders that I saw. One was a big burly man using a yellow full-body armor, he was capable of launching big thunder strikes through his mouth. The other one was an albino woman. She used a Yukata and eyepatch." I can feel a migraine start forming. Please God, I am begging you, do not let it be her. "She used two legendary swords, **Crocear Mors** that allowed her to control gravity and **Hrotti** that pushed back any weapon automatically. She also had a pair of sandals, she said it was the **sandals of Hermes** but I don't know if it really was or not." Please, GOD, don't let it be her. "I got her name, it is Lugh." Shit. God, I prayed for you. Why couldn't you let it NOT be her?

The look on my face must have been quite strange to everyone, except the Sister that was looking stoic and Emily as she knew the reason, was confused by my action.

"Do you know that treasure obsessed woman? If yes, I will cut you, if no, I will probably cut you." Said Kanda showing all the patience that he did not have.

"*sigh* Lugh is an ex-member of Judgment. She is a descendant of the Irish hero Lugh and is completely obsessed with treasures. She usually tried to steal any and all treasures she saw and, for as strange that it may seem, can use any and all treasures she claims as her own." I explained. She was a difficult person to work with as she was usually cheering for my death at every turn so that she could claim my weapons. If someone tells me she is part dragon, I would not believe it as she loves treasure even more than them. "Miku what happened with you and Seryu exactly?"

"*sigh* We were hearing a lot of sounds all around us when suddenly the door opened. We did not saw anything coming in until suddenly two figures appeared as if coming out of nowhere. One of them was the big guy you talked about, the one with the thunder armor. The other was a hooded figure. There were no traces of its body for us to see, just a skull mask covering its head." Miku explained. "Seryu-chan jumped in front of me with Koro enlarging pretty fast. Koro jumped to face the big guy and Seryu decided to face the skull one but was overwhelmed pretty fast by its use of a dagger. I tried to help but my voice could not do much more than disturb it and after touching Seryu with its hand it jumped at me ignoring her. Thankfully I managed to not get wounded thanks to using the air around me as a barrier with my ability with sound."

"But how did you managed to survive in that situation?" I could not help but wonder. This was not something easy to just survive somehow.

"It seems that they felt that the others finished their enemies and were approaching as they did say that 'time is up'. The giant used one of its thunder strikes to pierce through Koro and almost hit me as well if it wasn't for Seryu jumping and pushing me aside. It created a large hole in the wall and while we were confused the large guy went outside while the hooded figure continued trying to attack. That was when it managed to give me this scratch. After that the large guy reappeared with that Lugh you were talking about and they all run away as in less than 10 seconds you all started appearing." Miku explained the situation.

I suddenly noticed that she started giving out a strange smile. What is up with that?

"So this last one is highly capable of use of dagger as it could overwhelm both off you easily and is an expert in poison, huh. Also, they have some way of becoming invisible, probably the hooded figure is responsible as it seems like much more of an assassin than a guy wearing YELLOW armor releasing thunder strikes." I nodded to myself, this information was important.

A plan was forming on my head so as to deal with this situation. "It is decided then, Miku" she trembled slightly hearing me call her name so directly. "you are not to get more than 10 meters away from me.

"My skill in the purification of poison is almost like the perfect counter to the assassin poisonous skill. Okuyasu, you the Sister and Seryu, when she wakes up, will be responsible for the big guy. His powers seem to center on thunder and brut power so you three are the best option." He nodded his head with a serious face. An irritated face on it as he looked at Seryu, he really is a softy with his companions. "Emily, you and Kanda will work together to deal with Lugh."

"Not needed. I will defeat all three of them. You can go and do something useful for the world like dying in a ditch." Kanda said. I must say that I am surprised he can even walk; I mean he got a stick that big up his ass.

"Yeah… no. I don't doubt you are strong but facing Lugh alone is reckless. She got much more artifacts we don't know of so facing her is difficult. Emily can give you aerial support so it will be a great help for you. And it is not optional unless you want to face us here as well." I said, but Kanda ignored it and glared at me with killing intent, not much but enough for me to respond with an equal amount in retaliation. He responded by raising his and before long we were almost at each other's throat.

" **STOP**." Miku commanded. At that instant, everyone except me could not move. She looked at me with a dark glare for an instant before returning to her normal self… not an improvement. "Kanda you will listen to what he says. And Castiel-kuzu-san I will allow you to accompany me, but do not look at me with perverted eyes or I will kill you myself."

And with that our first day on guard duty ended.

* * *

 **Writer note**

 **Now, I am going to give you all a warning. These next few chapters are going to show some shitty pasts, and I do mean the shittiest that I could think of for each one of the characters that are getting their own past chapters.**

 **I don't know what most will feel about them but they are what came out when I thought, what could have happened in this situation.**

 **And another thing, Crocear Mors and Hrotti are actual mythological swords from different pantheons. And another detail that I don't know if you readers will get is that Lugh is based on Lugh from Trinity Seven, I just got the idea that she would fit in on the DxD-verse quite well.**

 **Next chapter will show the past of Seryu, I fully intend to show the past of many of the characters at some point in the story.**


	24. Chapter 22-5 - Seryu's past

There once was a girl.

She had auburn hair. Loved to eat candies and play with her friends. Her life was the epitome of light, all cheerfulness, and happiness. One could say that this was the height of her joy, the innocence of youth. Yet, she also had great inspirations, inspirations born from the environment she grew up in.

Her greatest wish was to grow up and be a hero like her father. A man she looked up to, she put on a pedestal that reached towards the heavens. Her father, he was chief of police, had been so for as long as she could remember, and fought crime every day for those who couldn't. He was someone who helped those who couldn't help themselves. Every time he came back home, he would tell her of how many people he saved with a smile.

In contrast, her mother was more... down to earth, one might say. Like the skies were to the earth. She was a housewife, someone that took care of everything in the house. That was alright with her because, in her eyes, someone like a housewife would be needed in raising the child to be the best person she could be. The young girl saw more of her mother than her father due to his job, but despite that, the love she had for them was shared equally. She used to make her delicious food and tell her all kinds of stories, but the little girl favorite was always the ones of heroes saving the day.

The girl always talked about how she would grow up to be like both her parents: as pretty as her mommy and save everyone like her father. An innocent dream, so like that of a child who hadn't known anything else besides laughter and smiles.

However, that would soon change...

Change in ways that nobody would ever want.

The day when the cruelty of this world broke a soul of its pure white innocence...

* * *

 _7 years before Canon starts_

 _Seryu 10 years' old_

A little city in France

Nighttime

Seryu P.O.V.

CRASH!

A Gasp tore itself from my throat as I got startled awake.

WHA-what was that sound?

It sounded like it came from downstairs, much to my confusion.

Did mommy slipped or something?

As a future hero of justice, I must help her!

Quickly, I throw off the covers of my bed, slipping my tiny feet into some fluffy pink doggy slippers mommy got for me last year for my birthday.

I put on a brave face, just like daddy would when going out for his job, patting my cheeks for resolution.

Time for the hero of justice to get to work!

CLANK, CLANK CLANK

The stairs make audible creaking sounds as I walked down them to see what was going on. If I'm being honest, the way they did that alys seemed unnerving to me, and for some reason they just added to this strange tension.

Wonder why.

As I go down the stairs I noticed a strange smell permeated the air. My nose twitches in isgust at the smell, eww, gross! I don't ;ike this smell, not at all.

But...

More than that, what was it?

Taking a slow breath, I inhale the scent after biting down my distaste for it.

It is strangely metallic but not quite metal,

but what is it exactly?

SLIP.

Ouch. I slipped in something wet as soon as my foot reached the downstairs floorboards. What was t-

...

...

...

...

CRACK

The sound of a pure white crystal, shimmering in its purity, cracking filled my mind for some reason, but I didn't notice.

I was just too focused on what, or who was in front of me right now.

Mommy?

Why are you on the ground?

Why are you not moving?

What is this red liquid coming out of your neck?

Why are tears coming out of my eyes?

So many questions, mixed with these strange feelings, swelled inside of me.

What were they?

Why do I need to scream until my lungs are burning?

"What it this, a little dessert?"

A monster spoke as it seemingly fell from the ceiling and landed right in front of me, making my skin go white as I stared wide-eyed at its imposing demeanor while it loomed over me. Light darkened its form before me, save for the glowing crimson eyes, but I could still make out its features.

It reminded me eerily of those scary bedtime stories mommy used to read to me before I got too scared one night and she stopped it.

It's upper body looked green and scaly, like my dinosaur stuffed animal back in my room, yet also had the shape of my mommy. The arms match mommy's, but the nails look too long and pointy. Yet the legs looked nothing like that of my mommy's, instead, they looked like a giant tail belonging to one of those large snakes I saw once on a show daddy watched on his days off work. Though... it had some sorta mouth o the end, filled with fat, wide fangs that were bared towards me. I could see the saliva dripping between them, and my feelings of dread continued to skyrocket.

BANG

BANG

BANG

The sounds of a gun being fired echoed through my ears, as did the monster.

Bullets hit in the back, and when the two of us looked to the source (the monster seemingly twisting around with one hand on the ground) we both saw my daddy leaning against a wall.

He looked like a sheer mess, something I've never seen like before. He always came home with a smile on his face, but now he had a twisted angry snarl. I don't like it, and something tells me this is because of mommy being on the ground. Red stuff trailed down the side of his head while his boy looked like it had been scratched deeply all over. red stuff came out every scratch too.

"Get away from my daughter!" Dad yelled that from the other side of the room, fury and... why did he look so scared? I don't like that look, did he see watt that monster did to mommy?

He started shooting this monster, but like before it barely did a thing aside from making it twitch in annoyance.

The bullet casings fell to the ground, lifeless and forgotten.

Though, it did do its job of making the being divert its attention away from me for a brief instant.

"Oh, right. I was almost forgetting the main dish." She remarked thoughtfully, turning back to him. "But I suppose no one will make a reclamation if I take a sample of the desert." Her lips, oozing blood and filled with sharp fangs unlike those of her Tail, shifted into a disgusting grin while its Tail twitched. Daddy went pale, and he made to say something, but the being reacted too fast. Suddenly the tail of this thing moved very fast and I heard the sound of something being ripped off.

Followed by another Cracking sound.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

I flew back into the wall beside the staircase, screaming my lungs out. I could barely even think let alone try to stop myself, tears streaming down my face like the waterfalls mommy showed me sometimes.

I slid down the wall, two trails of blood flowing down the wall from my shoulders, and I could barely make out some small limbs lying helpless on the ground before the creature tail opened its mouth and devoured them whole.

The being seemed to cackle, though I couldn't tell thanks to my screaming, as it turned away from me to my horrified daddy.

It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts-It-hurts!

Mommy, mommy! Please! Save me! Please, save me!

.

.

.

Mommy did not move. She just lay there, her eyes empty, blank.

CRACK!

Daddy, please save me! Com here, help me!

.

.

.

.

Daddy was in the mouth of that thing.

CRACK!

Please!

I don't care who!

Someone, anyone, please save me.

.

.

.

.

No one ca-

"Sorry for being late." Someone appeared!

He was a boy apparently my age, had blond approaching white hair, slightly tanned skin and heterochromatic eyes. He looks at me full of guilt.

"Don't worry, nothing else will happen to you with me here." He then took out a vial with some water and poured it into my 'arms' and they stopped bleeding. "These are phoenixes tears, they heal."

At this, my consciousness was going in and out. I don't really know what happened but I saw that bad monster being attacked on its side by a man all in blue while this boy was holding me in bridal style and going out of the house and away from all the bad things.

SHATTER

* * *

Huh? What is this?

My eyes stir open, and I feel light headed.

But, that soon became the last thing I was focused on when I saw everything.

This is not the ceiling in my room, this one is white. The bad is also different. Why? Where was this?

I better get up or mommy will get angry at me for being late.

I try to move, but...

HUH, why can't I move my arms?

As soon as I move my head to the side to check them, and my eyes enlarged when I saw the stumps from where my arms used to be.

Suddenly memories that I did not want came running back, mommy, daddy, the monster, cracking, shattering, and that red stuff.

So much red.

I need to get out of here. It is not safe. The monster may still be here, I need some sort of weapon. Luckily there is a small scalpel beside the bad in a tray. I get up with a lot of difficulties and take it using my mouth. It is hard to move but I need something to protect myself.

STOMP

STOMP

STOMP

I hear steps approaching. I, I need somewhere to hide. Ah, there is a locket right there, I will hide in there. Daddy always said to me that I was the best in 'hide and seek'. Remembering dad hurts but I must keep going.

A few moments after I enter the locket (thank god for the fact that it is a sliding door or I wouldn't be capable of open or close it) I start to hear some sounds.

"-yritt-san I told you. There is no need for you to come along. I am here just to check up on her." A voice of someone young came, it seems frustrated.

"And... Illya-sama said... to protect you." A monotonous and slightly robotic voice came next.

"You know what? Fine, come along but stay at the door. I do not want to frighten her and you are scary to me." Then I noticed the steps getting closer. It seems like whoever entered the room is looking for me. Stay calm, he will not find you. You are great in 'hide and seek' after all.

SLIDE

He opened the door. Oh no, what do I do? And if he is a monster? The one that moves first wins. I jumped at him and before he can react I crashed with him and using my scalpel I manage to wound his arm. Unfortunately, before I can try and get up a strong arm pushes me to the ground.

"Protect, Castiel-sama, eliminate, attacker."

I am going to die.

"Wait!"

The boy came. Now that I took a good look at him he is the one that saved me. He is bleeding on his arm, the one I attacked. How could I do such a thing? Now they will throw me away and the monster will come again.

"Leysritt-san, it is fine. She is just scared. I am sure she won't do it again, right?" He looks at me and I start to nod. "See, there is no danger anymore. Now can you let her go, she must rest to recuperate."

The woman that pinned me down, Leysritt-san I think, got up and stayed away. I tried to stand up but without my arms it is difficult. Suddenly the boy came and took me in his arms and put me back to bed.

"I know you must be hungry. Here, I was going to eat it later but you can have it." He smiled at me and gave me some candy. It is my favorite, the same as mom used to buy for me.

That was when it all dawned on me with perfect clarity for the first time.

She… she won't buy me any more candy. She won't tell me anymore story's. Dad won't tell me about his day anymore. I won't fell their hugs and kisses anymore. I won't feel their warmth again.

Any innocence I had was completely shattered by this revelation.

Lights had been snuffed out.

Never to return.

That light and innocence, no longer existed.

It had been permanently destroyed.

Sniff, sniff Buaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

What do I do? I found this girl when I went on my first mission accompanied by Lancer-sensei and it was awful.

We did not get there in time and her whole family was slaughtered by a stray-devil, she even lost both her arms. One could say we exercised vengeance for the dead people's sake, especially my sensei (the state of that... 'thing' was so bad that I almost felt sorry for it, but when I remembered what it did I spit on the corpse and gave it a kick).

Afterward, we decided to bring the girl back with us, it wasn't like we could just leave her there. She needed medical attention, and it was us who had to provide it since it was our fault for not getting here on time. We took her back and were thinking about how to treat her, but when I came to visit she attacked me and now she is crying her eyes out.

What do I do? What do I do?... Oh, I know. Lancer-sensei told me that when a woman is crying a man should hug her and let her cry it out while saying that everything will be all right.

Even if it wasn't.

Something told me that this girl knew that too.

* * *

Seryu P.O.V.

I am alone now.

I am sad.

There's nothing out there for me anymore.

There is no one to care.

There is nothing in me anymore, no innocence, no hope nor love.

Please mommy, daddy help me.

Suddenly I feel myself being pulled by the boys' arms and he hugged me. His arm is still wet with blood, the same red stuff my mommy and daddy had, but he does not care as he just hugs me anyway and started to talk.

"Shhhh, everything is going to be okay. I am here now."

I don't know what to think. I don't know what to feel. So I just kept crying and crying on his shoulder while he kept hugging me and saying that everything will be fine.

Even though I knew deep down that it wouldn't be.

* * *

A few hours later

What happened? I remember that I was crying and this boy hugged me and that is it. I must have fallen asleep.

I was with my eyes closed but when I opened them up I saw that the boy was still here. He just laid down beside me but did not go away.

I stirred as it was the first time I sleep like this with someone else. Mommy used to tell me that a man and a woman should only lay together if they are married.

What do I do?

We are not married or anything like it... right?

Thanks to my movement he seems to have noticed I woke up, he looked at me and gave me a beautiful smile and asked.

"Are you better now?"

I can't answer that. It was just so much that happened to me in so little time. So many questions. What happened, where am I, who is he, what will happen to me. So much that I need to know, but first.

"I am hungry."

He seemed surprised but then he just gave me a nod. He stood up and got some soup that was on the tray that I found the scalpel earlier.

"Here, say 'aaahhh'"

He began to feed me. It is like those movies where two characters are in love and spoon feed each other.

I began to eat what was offered. It was delicious.

After that, he began to explain everything to me. About where I am, what attacked us, about magic, we talked and talked until it was nightfall and he needed to go for his night training. Before he left I asked.

"What is your name? Mine is Seryu."

"It is Castiel, Castiel Emiya. It is a pleasure to meet you, Seryu-chan."

Specs of something in the void.

* * *

It has been a week since I got here. I am getting better, what happened to my family still is painful. I don't think that will ever change, even if I try to move on, it will still be vividly clear to me. Every day I remember what happened with such clarity that it was like reliving the moment over and over again.

I... I get flashbacks to that moment through the day and afterward, I'm in tears while Castiel is beside me, comforting me each and every time. But, if that were the only thing then it wouldn't be as bad, but that moment plagued me even in my nightmares. It was like every time I get up int he morning, I remember that moment with perfect clarity, and am unable to forget it. Leaves me with nothing but distress, guilt, and anxiety.

These guys who call themselves Judgement, which I think is cool since my daddy was a chief of police and believed in justice, they told me that I was suffering from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. They say that it was an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.

Definitely fits my family's death well.

Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, he may also experience feelings of isolation, irritability, and guilt.

Just as I do.

They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.

Same as me.

These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person's day-to-day life.

Yep, I could agree with that part so much that it was like it was saying what I was in a nutshell.

One good thing came from this though, and that was my new friend.

Since day one Castiel came every day to check up on me. He always made sure that I was getting feed right and that I was comfortable. He usually spends as much time as possible with me whenever he is not training. He told me he trains every day so that he can fight the same type of monster that killed my family. It is like he is (mine) super-hero.

I wanted to ask if they could train me too as I also want to help those in need; but with no arms, I can't even help myself.

In my heart, more specs of that something could be seen barely piercing through the dark void.

"Seryu-chan how are you feeling." Speak of him and he comes. Castiel is smiling like always; he has such a bright smile.

It almost makes the void in my heart clear up, just a little bit.

"I am fine." I gave a strained smile. Whenever I think of my arms I get sad.

He frowns, but then he seems to understand something and gave me an impish smile.

"It is good that you are fine as I have some good news. You are discharged from the hospital." He then looked at me in the eye and said. "Also I have someone that I want you to meet."

He then put me in a wheelchair, as without my arms it is hard to balance myself, and took me away from that room.

We spend our time talking about any and everything. We passed by many people till we got in somewhere strange. There were machines everywhere. In the center there was a large man, he had a blue pompadour, a disproportional forearm, three-pointed chin, a metal nose, Hawaiian shirt and was using a red speedo. To be using that speedo like normal he must be a pervert.

"Aauu, how you doing in this SSSUUUUUPPPPPEEERRR day Castiel"

"I am okay Franky-aniki. I am here with Seryu-san about that thing I asked you before." He said as if these poses this Franky person.

"Hum, I see." He then looked at me up and down and then smiled and said. "Ain't you a cutie, now it makes sense why Castiel spends so much time with you."

I could just blush at that.

"Don't worry, Franky may seem like a Yankee and a pervert but he is good at heart. … Even though he still is a pervert."

"Aauu, that is right. I am a pervert and am proud of that." He then made more poses that a bodybuilder would do.

"I will leave you here with him and it will all be fine. Don't worry, I am here for you."

After Castiel left it was just me and Franky in here.

I honestly didn't know what to do. Part of me wants to trust my friend, but the rest of me still remembers clearly what the last strange being I met did to me and my family. My arms gain phantom pains just thinking about that moment they were ripped off.

"So, I see that you lost your arms." I nod a little. "And also heard you wanted to learn how to fight as well." A flash if sadness passed throw me.

After talking with Castiel I learned that there are many others that are in similar or worst condition than me due to those monsters, but I can't help them.

I feel so useless.

"Would you like to be capable of being back to how you were or would you want to have the power to protect?"

"The power to help others." The response that I gave was almost instinctive. I didn't want anyone else to end up like me. I want to be a hero just like my father was. It is what all my being wanted, no it was what it demanded of me.

He grins and laughs a little in amusement.

"Good to see that what I did was worth it then." He got up and went to the back of the room. In there, existed a curtain. He opened it and there were three things there: a strange puppy and two metallic arms.

"These are a masterpiece I made after a few months of work together with Illya-san in her Homunculi-department. The arms are as durable as diamond and can connect to the nervous system so you can move and even get the touch feeling back. It will be no different for you than your previous arms. Also thanks to Illya's contribution these are gonna adapt to your body size so they will get naturally on your size and when you grow they will grow together with you."

The moment he finished, my heart stopped beating for a moment. Inside, I could feel more specs of that something piercing through the void.

Is this really happening? I will have arms again. I will not be an inconvenience that needs help to eat and everything else too. I am so happy... but wait.

"What about that puppy?"

Franky smiled and said.

"This is the reason I said it was a masterpiece. This 'puppy' as you said is a hybrid between homunculi and machine and is directly connected to whoever he is programmed to. It can change its size to become close to that comic hero 'the Incredible Hulk' and he can exchange the arms with many different weapons when he bites the arms off, a little something I added when Castiel asked me. Don't worry the biting of the arms is painless." he assures me when he see's the PTSD-induced fear passing through my eyes. He then continued.

He then said something after giving me a list of variations and abilities he included or will include on those two things that honestly blew my mind. Especially the technical side, I got no idea that someone could talk so much in my language but sound like he was talking in mandarin from how nonsensical it felt.

"I am just glad that you want to help people because if I gave my masterpiece for someone just use as a regular arm I would feel cheated. Especially after what the boy did for it h to happen."

This is so amazing. With this, I can be a hero too. I will save others like Castiel saved me. …wait what was that last part.

"What do you mean by that last part? What did Castiel have to do to get me those two items?"

"That is simple." He came close to me and sit on a chair nearby, he even took out a guitar and started playing it a bit. He was not that bad. " Originally this 'puppy' was supposed to be to Castiel, a present, and a bodyguard to make sure he was safe.

"But, Castiel-san asked me to help you. I was planning to give you a normal arm but he went on his knees asking me to give you the best I could. That he wanted you to be happy. He even took many lashes on his back as punishment because he went to his knees, something he should NEVER do because of his position. But he smiled through it all because I agreed to his request." He starts to dry the tears that were at the point of start falling.

He did that for me?

The specs of that something started to gather even more in the void.

"Why did he do such a thing?" I honestly cannot comprehend this. He may be cheerful and seem easy to understand, but to anyone that truly understand even a bit about him will see that he cares a lot about his personal honor and position, almost like he was a charismatic prince or king from old.

"That you can ask after the surgery. It won't be a particularly long process so you just need to wait one or two hours." He said shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

2 hours later

I still think I must be dreaming. I woke up with no prospect about what I would do here on out and now here I am with my two arms back and a puppy (which I named Koro) on my lap.

"Now that that is done you just need to not put much stress on them for the rest of today and everything will be just fine." Franky said with a smile. He may seem dangerous but he is a nice guy, pervert and all.

"Okay, Franky-aniki." His smile widens a bit more. "By the way were is Castiel now?"

"Oh, he probably is on the training field 3. Just go to the left, then the third right, and then straight ahead. It is a big open space, there is no mistaking that."

I said my farewells and left. I must go see him and thank him for everything.

As I approached the field I start listening to the sound of something hitting the walls hard.

"Is that all you got? This way you won't get strong enough to protect those you want anytime soon." A feminine voice said that.

"*pant**pant* I can still go on." That was Castiel voice.

"Good. Now again" and them the sound of swords hitting each other appeared. The sound was growing faster and faster until-

CRASH

I got there just in time to see Castiel be thrown into the wall. He is covered in many cuts and seems to barely be capable of standing. His opponent is a lady in a pretty blue dress and holding a simple sword (AUTHOR NOTE: I wouldn't make Saber use Excalibur against her disciple, especially when he still is a child).

"Are you going to fall now or are you getting up?"

"I *pant*can *pant* still keep GOING."

And then he went again. He attacked so fast that I could barely see and the lady was going much slower but she deflected all his strikes anyway. Don't matter if it was an overhead chop, a sweep on her belly or a pierce aiming at her leg she deflected and parried all the strikes with obvious ease.

Then she started attacking as well. She gave simple and direct attacks but in such way that Castiel could not avoid any of them well. No wasted movements, beautiful. When he did not manage to parry well he was sent flying by her sword strike.

CRASH

This time he did not get up again.

"Well, let's wrap this up for today. You may rest now; in one hour you are expected in the training room 2 for your class in runes with Lancer as Bazet is on a mission."

The only response was a grunt of what probably was an affirmation.

That lady nods at me and went her way.

"Castiel-san, are you all right?"

"...Yeah, this is nothing new." He turned around and I notice that most of the wounds are closing. "These fields use a fusion of magecraft, runecraft and some of the magic used by the Norse, Greeks and Hindu pantheons so as to help in the recovery of the body. As long as the wound is new and is not of the mortal kind or the losing of a member there is nothing to fear."

I understand, so it is magic. Let's just see it this way than it is fine.

"Hey, Castiel."

"Yes, Seryu-chan?"

"Why did you ask Franky-aniki to give me his best prosthetic? I am just a normal kid, nothing special. I am an orphan with no family to take care of, no talent to magic as you yourself checked and no relation to you. So why have you done that?" I asked as I simply cannot comprehend it.

He simply looks at me as if I was an idiot for even asking.

"Seriously? Isn't that easy to understand?" Seeing my confused face he continued. "*sigh* There were two reasons for that: one is that I wanted to make you happy and two because I like you so I want the best for you."

I don't know what to say, I just open my mouth and stare at him. Was it just for that? No, no it must have some other reason. For now, let's let it slide and ask his something else.

That something began merging together faster and faster.

"H-h-hey Castiel-kun." I stammered a bit there, bad Seryu you need to be more dignified. "Why are you training so hard? You can't even move afterward and is clearly in pain so why do you continue, especially since it seems that this is your normal training. Why do you do it?"

"Oh, that is easy." He turns and looks up to the sky. "I just want to be the type of person that can protect the ones I care about and help others whenever I can."

THUMP

Ah, I finally understand. So this is what a true hero is like.

This is what he is for me, a hero…

At that moment, that something that once reflected my innocence, destroyed by that monster called a Stray Devil, returned to its full form. It didn't look completely the same though, as cracks were in it, leading to a large hole.

A hole that soon became filled with golden crystal.

Golden, just like the hair and heart of him, a hero...

my hero.

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was a little something I had in my head, but I must say that I could not have done it half as good without my friend HunterXkiller86.**

 **He honestly helped me a whole lot on this chapter, without him the descriptions would not be half as good and the chapter would not have shown most of the feels I wanted it to show.**

 **Now I want to say that I thank everyone that read this chapter and I invite everyone to leave a comment about what you thought of it, any ideas are welcome as well.**

 **Next chapter will be back to the main story where I will show who is the skull masked assassin.**


	25. Chapter 23

Castiel P.O.V.

It is already morning. It was hard to tell at first since I never got much sleep after what happened. How could I? I couldn't bear to go to sleep and leave one of the girls I love vulnerable. I guess you could say that was paranoia, but I couldn't care less about how it looked like. After seeing her like that I needed to see her waking up. To see that she was fine. To see that my failure did not cost her life.

"Hmmmm~ boss, not there. We are on a mission… Ok, just a bit." I couldn't help but smile bitterly when I hear her mumbling stuff like that. Seryu always did have that habit of muttering in her sleep, but I found it adorable to watch. If she can be having one of those dreams she is ok.

Despite my protective boyfriend side wanting to let her rest some more, I knew that I could not indulge her in this.

"Se-chan, it is time to wake up." I said caringly while nudging her shoulder. She was pulled in this world because of me, I do not want to see her hurt like this. A low moan escaped her lips as she tried to swat my hand away, trying to keep herself in dreamland but I did not stop no matter how much I wanted to let her rest.

She started waking up after hearing my voice. She was looking groggily at the ambient around her, probably she does not know where she is. However, at seeing me she jumped out of bed… or tried to as she ended up falling to the ground.

THUD

Seeing her falling like that made me even more relieved. This made it even more clear to me that she was alive. Showing her clumsy side like that is just so like her.

"Casti- I mean Boss. I apologize for my sorry display!" She gave a salute to me. She always tries to act in such a military way whenever she is nervous. "I allowed that the target to be wounded, and did not follow your expectations, and-"

I could not bear to see her acting like this so I shut her up by giving her a hug. I know that she is scared. This was the closest to dying since the day I found her that she has ever been. I could not do much but pet her head and started whispering into her ear.

"It must have been scary. Sorry for being late. Don't worry, nothing else will happen to you with me here." I kept repeating this over and over again. At the start, she could not understand what I was saying, but little by little she seemed to understand. She started trembling, her body started trembling I could hear weak sobbing's from her. She hugged me closer as if I was her lifeline as if her life depended on it.

She was crying.

Crying out of fear, out of powerlessness, out of happiness to be alive.

And I let her cry it out. No matter how unsightly she may look with her nose full of snot and face covered in tears, or if my shirt got wet by her tears, or if her fingers pressed my back to the point that I could feel my body bleed a little. I still kept her on my chest in a gentle but strong hug until she let it all out, for she is one of the women that I love. And I do not want to ever let her go.

* * *

Miku's room

Miku P.O.V.

I could hear everything on this floor. Be it the soft breath of Emily as she sleeps or the sound of that stilt wings flapping. It was one of the few true benefits of being born who I am, an absurd affinity with sound and music.

Since a few moments ago I heard the sound of Seryu-chan waking up. I was about to go and see her when I heard her talking to Castiel. The sound of her crying and what he said to her, I heard it all.

"You must be lying. I cannot and will not trust the word of a man, they are all filthy liars. None can ever be anything more than a venomous beast."

He disgusts me.

I want to vomit hearing those words. Pure lies, no truth at all. It cannot be genuine. I simply can't believe what he says.

I will not let this girl, she who almost died for me last night, be deceived by some random man. I will protect her. I will not let her be deceived by some 'fake goods', fake words and fake promises. But what can I do to show her what he truly is like?

...oh, I got an idea. That ought to show her the truth about him and all man.

I will show her the truth before it is too late… like it was for me.

No man can be trusted. None.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

This must be what the description of hell is like.

I know I had gone on some dates before and I had seen how some woman act. I mean Yuno is crazy about how 'forward' she is. It is to the point that if I wasn't under threat of torture for eternity, I would probably have already done IT with her. Independent of what I say.

But, Yuno is my girlfriend/fiancé. I could understand why she acts like that. But this situation is ridiculous.

Since this morning Miku decided to have a 'relaxing day' by going to some dating spots all the time. We went to see a movie (I must admit that black panther IS amazing, among the best Marvel movies out there), went to *shiv-v-v-vers* shopping (it was the proof that I could probably carry a mountain as I probably did carry such a mountain made of clothes) and even went to a lingerie store. She made me accompany her all along.

She flaunted her body to me and was awfully touchy. It is like she was trying to charm me or something.

The worst part is that Seryu was watching at a distance and she was visibly not pleased. I am probably looking like a playboy to her. Afterall we did have a moment earlier and now here I am with Miku. Just what is going on in this woman's head?

* * *

Miku P.O.V.

The plan is going as planned.

I will prove to Seryu that this thing cannot and is not of confidence. That he is no more than a beast.

His eyes on me feel terrible. And touching him is no different than touching a cockroach. But I must do it.

If I can show Seryu what he is like, the fact that he is no different than all those stinking pieces of garbage she can move on. To not be betrayed.

And letting he carry my luggage is good. I can buy as much as I want AND make him carry it all instead of sending it to my room, a double win if anyone asks me.

* * *

Emily P.O.V.

This is annoying. Here I am with Seryu basically watching Castiel on a date with our target. How can this sort of thing happen, or better yet, why can't we just wrap this up so I can go home and watch my TV?

I heard it from Seryu what happened this morning. Of how Castiel comforted her.

But now, just a few hours later he is with Miku. The worst part is that Seryu has been watching it all and making it very clear that she is not pleased. Especially if you consider that when she was almost pickpocketed she punched the man so hard his teeth fall off and she wanted to keep pounding him.

And then there was the lingerie store… I spent a lot of time trying to NOT let Seryu blow it all. It was extra hard thanks to Koro being beside her cheering her on. I could swear that Seryu must be related to Michael Bay at that moment, her love for explosions was too strong.

I must get a good pay or it will not be worth it at all.

* * *

Later that day

Castiel P.O.V.

We are now in the studio. Miku is recording a new song for her latest album.

I did not like it one bit.

The lyrics were shallow and the emotions could barely be felt. I mean it was just plain awful for me.

Strangely enough, it seems that everyone else was intoxicated by it. It was in different degrees but they ALL liked, and that is strange for me no matter how I see it.

I mean it was not good. Like at all.

Seeing Miku getting out of the recording room everyone approached her. Complementing her voice, talent, appearance, etcetera, and etcetera.

She ignored it all and approached me. She looked right into my eyes and said.

"So…" is she wanting my opinion?

"What?" I acted dumb. I have no need to act any different after all.

"What did you think of my song? Was it amazing? Or perhaps the best one you have ever heard?" she asks all smugly. I could hear all about everyone acting crazy and even some answers along the lines of 'it is perfection' and 'no one can ever be better'. The more she heard the smugger she got. It is like she loves complements just that much.

"... Do you really want my honest impression?" I asked.

"Yes of course. I know you must be in love with my voice by now, but a verbal confirmation that you love it is good." She said.

"Fine them. It was terrible. No emotions and the lyrics were shallow. It was empty and truly more mechanic than anything. It is like you do not even like singing these songs, and I do mean this one and the last few I have heard." I sad it to her.

Hearing this she basically froze, completely disbelieving my words. Then came a flood of hate and insults that made me wonder if she was really a goddess or simply a hooligan.

I ignored most of it, no point in being angered by those insults. After a while seeing my lack of reaction she stopped speaking and just looked at me quietly, no movement whatsoever.

She stayed like this for a few moments till she turned away and started walking. She went to the recording room to do it all over again.

The others in the room kept saying that the song was good enough but she did not listen. She just kept singing. It got a bit better, but it was still trash for me.

When she finished she asked me again and my answer was as such.

"Better, but the emotions are all wrong. I can only feel contempt and hate in this song."

"SO YOU GO AND DO BETTER!" she screamed at me.

"Sorry, I am no singer. If I tried I would probably make you laugh or cry due to how bad I am." I said in good humor.

She did not appreciate that as she turned her back and decided to leave the room. I was going to accompany her when.

"I do not want you by your side anymore. Go away you trash!" She exclaimed and walked briskly to the door.

The moment she left the room I caught a sign of a shadow moving slightly. No more than an instant later I was in front of Miku with my sword ( **Kupriotes** ) in hand on a lockdown with a dagger.

I looked at the offender. It was wearing a black cape all over its body and had a skull mask on its face. I could not identify the gender or any other information out of it but in this instance, it did not matter. All I could see was that it is the one that wounded Seryu.

That was enough for me.

I used all blessings I could on myself and started lashing out with all curses I could on it. Strangely enough, it did not seem to have any effect as the power on the dagger was still as strong as before and when it moved back the speed did not change as well.

Is it an immunity to curses or is he already cursed? I know that there are curses that are just so strong that any individual can only carry one such curse. If it is that it can be a problem as part of my powers just turned useless.

After the deadlock continued for a second the assassin jumped back.

Taking advantage of the new distance the assassin dashed to me once again. He ran fast, but when he was about to get on my sword reach he jumped to the wall and kicked it to go faster in an angle that my sword could not reach that spot fast enough. The assassin then used its hand to touch my face during the interval that I took to get my sword in a way that it could affect it.

Strangely enough, I noticed that it must be a girl as her fingers skin was simple to soft and creamy to be of a dude, I can say this for certain as Bon Clay uses all creams there are and his palm is still no match for a girl.

After touching me she kicked the wall again and using it she got away before I could even touch her, but not before she used her other hand to activate a small gadget on her that I did not notice before that liberated a small hail of golden needles no thicker than hair. Lucky me that I was using my combat clothes, if it wasn't for that I may as well have turned into a hedgehog.

After getting a distance from me it seemed to be waiting for something, I don't know what but I took that moment to analyze the situation. The assassin is in front of me, Kanda and my team are a small distance away and Miku is right behind me. The bigger problem is that I do not know if there are enemy reinforcements.

I must proceed with caution… even if I want to kill this bitch for what she did to Seryu.

As we kept in this staring contest the enemy started shaking and it was clear that whoever it was the enemy was taking deep breaths. I do not know what does it mean but I will not let this chance go, I swiftly charged forward while writing a small rune on my sword.

When I reached her I sweep my sword at the enemy mid-sector, she managed to escape by flipping herself back twice. Unfortunately for her, the rune took effect at that moment by liberating a large number of flames in her direction.

She used her daggers to defend herself, and while she did manage to go away mostly with no big amount of damage his cape was burned.

That is when I got to see that the enemy was indeed a female. She had a violet short hair, slim figure and (as strange as it sounds) gray skin. She was dressed in a dark leotard covering most of her body but leaving her shoulders and arms bare, she also had gloves covering most of her hand and fore-arm except her fingers and she also had a pouch attached to her belt. But as she was still wearing a skull mask I could not see her face, just her big purple eyes.

She looked at me in slight shock but I did not let up, I kept going forward swinging my sword while trying to hit her, but it did not work as she was even faster than me. Suddenly she throws at me a small ball and when I took a step back as to prepare in case it was an explosive it liberated a large amount of smoke.

When the smoke cleared up she was in the shadows and started disappearing on it.

SHIT!

You better not think I will let you get away this easily, with no repercussions. I activated the only other spirit bone I had. Its appearance resembled one of those helmets seen in ancient Greece or a roman commander, but it had three jewels being two sapphires o the sides and one ruby on the middle above the forehead and the rest being completely white.

The name of the beast it was born from is **spiritual king Baize** , a unique spirit beast that had the form of an incorporeal cloud with ever-changing form. It is very hard to describe as each person will see it a different way, but the fact that it was among the very best spiritual fighters was undeniable (or so Zelretch said, and considering he has traveled throughout the multi-verse anything he says is very good is really awesome).

This bone had two effects; one is complete and total immunity to all mental interference, be it hypnosis, charm, spiritual and mental attacks or curses (obviously that complete immunity as long as it is not too strong, no matter the item is, if a god wanted to curse my mind it would still be cursed for instance); the other is the effect I am using on her, **complete understanding**.

This skill can only be used once a day but it cannot be stopped as long as the adversary doesn't have the magical resistance of high enough caliber. She does not have it.

The effect is comparatively simple after I use it I can see the adversary past and intentions in my next dream. It is not an offensive skill, but it can show me all I possible need to know about my opponent and even what he intends to do. The best part is that the target won't even realize a thing.

After I activated the bone she finally disappeared into the shadows. The battle may seem to have taken long, but it took less than 7 seconds. I turned to look at Miku to see if she was fine.

She was on her knees, trembling on the ground. Seeing her like that made me pity her a little so I went to help her up. As I was about to touch her…

SLAP

"Do not put those filthy hands on me." She said glaring at me as if I was the one that attacked her. She straightened herself and got up. She huffed and turned to walk away from all this. I obviously did not let her simply walk away from me as I held her shoulder to not let her keep walking.

"Let me go this instant!"

"No. It is still dangerous as the assassin may still be around. We will both wait right here until the others arrive and after we will all decide what we are going to do." I said firmly. My only answer was a 'Tch!'.

A few seconds later the rest of the team arrived. I explained the situation and they all got quite nervous. The enemy assassin can get in here at any time, despite the bounded fields we placed here, and we can't detect her properly.

At least after tonight, I will be capable of seeing her dreams and peer at her past, this will probably give me a general idea of where they are and what can be expected.

We decided that the best counter to her must be keeping myself as close as possible to Miku as I am immune to the poison and for the others to not guard the entrances so heavily and focus more on being close to the target. If the enemy can approach anyway it is safer to protect the target in close range than keep protecting the building.

Miku did not like that I would be kept even closer to her now. She did not like it one bit.

* * *

Later that day

Miku's personal room

It was later at night. I was guarding the room of Miku on the outside as she took her bath, no matter what we said that is one thing she did not concede.

It was quite boring.

As we did not know yet how the enemy evaded our protection we arrived in two possibilities, it could be that either the enemy has a powerful stealth or she can transport through shadows.

To deal with that we closed the windows and put as many spells on it as possible, also letting Kanda and one of the Sisters in watch duty outside (the fact that there were many bugs and it was a hot night knowing Kanda will face it all was not part of the reason, the fact that I was smiling when this was decided most definetly does (not) mean that I took pleasure in the pricks misfortune) and I stationed myself in the front of her door.

We also stationed Seryu on the room below and Okuyasu plus Emily on the room above. I put Seryu in the room below as it was the less likely to be attacked tonight as rising.

As I waited for Miku finish her bath I started hearing a small tune. It was not an agitated or fast song. It was a true emotion, a simple wish.

(Ost insert: Tsubasa o Kudasai from episode 7 from danganrompa 3: despair arc)

 _~If I could have one wish granted,~_

 _~I would want wings.~_

 _~On my back, as on a bird's,~_

 _~Please, give me white wings.~_

 _~I want to spread my wings to the sky,~_

 _~And fly away.~_

 _~To the free sky, where there is no sadness.~_

 _~I want to flap my wings,~_

 _~And go there.~_

 _~The dreams I dreamed in childhood.~_

 _~Even now, I still dream.~_

 _~I want to spread my wings to the sky,~_

 _~And fly away.~_

 _~To the free sky,_ _where there is no sadness.~_

 _~I want to flap my wings,~_

 _~In this vast sky, I want to spread my wings,~_

 _~And fly away.~_

 _~To the free sky, where there is no sadness,~_

 _~I want to flap my wings,~_

 _~In this vast sky, I want to spread my wings,~_

 _~And fly away.~_

 _~To the free sky, where there is no sadness,~_

 _~And fly away.~_

I could not contain myself, I ended up closing my eyes and immersed myself in the song.

That was true music. The emotions and feelings were there. Anyone could clearly feel what the singer wanted to say, what she wanted to say.

It was different from her earlier songs. This was… beautiful.

A few minutes later she ended her bath and I entered the room. Even if she wants to sleep alone in this room I would not allow it, so I decided to sleep in the couch (note to self, I hate almost all couches but spoiled people couches were much better). While she was getting ready to sleep I could not help but comment.

"That song just now, it was great."

The moment I said that she froze. Not a single movement whatsoever. It was even worse than when she was attacked earlier today, but after a moment she turned to me. Her eyes were filled with pure unadulterated hate as if she wanted to kill me this instant.

"Get out." It was all she said. I would like to say that I stood my ground but my instincts were telling me to obey her in this, and considering that they are equivalent to some servants according to the last few tests I made (even if they work only on pissed woman, I dubbed these instincts as the 'Oh shit' sense) I decided to obey said warning.

After getting out of the room I messaged the others to inform a slight change of plans. I put myself at the door, the Sister in the room with Miku and kept Kanda outside (I needed to have a good thought to get a good sleep after all). I put some alarms on the whole corridor and door to wake me up in case of ANY disturbance no matter how small and went to sleep.

* * *

On an abandoned building

3° person P.O.V.

It has been a few minutes that the assassin returned to her base. She did not talk much as she looked at those assembled.

On the left was the figure of a large man, easily two meters tall with a pale white almost grayish skin eating a plate of candies. He was using a brown overcoat and brown pants.

On the right was a young woman of no more than 17 polishing some sword. She was dressed in a red yukata and used a black eyepatch.

On the center was a man of around 30 drinking tea while reading a bible. He had a smooth face, wavy brown hair and had a small scar under his right eye.

Looking at the members that did not even acknowledged her existence when she arrived she said.

"I failed."

That got the attention of those in the room. They knew her reputation of always succeeding in assassinations, so seeing her fail in one was surprising.

"Why exactly did you fail, Serenity?" The man in the center asked. Meanwhile the larger man simple went back to his candies, they were more important for him.

"I did not expect that the guard beside her could react in time for defending her. I could not pass by him in time as the other guards were approaching before long." She explained in her voice that was strangely sweet and delicate, the voice of a young girl.

"Did you at least manage to kill the guard?" the man asked.

"No. I even got to touch him but he showed no signs of being affected by my body." That last part was not explained further as it was just too great of a shock for her to this to be even possible.

"It must have been Castiel." The eyepatch woman explained.

"And who is this 'Castiel' exactly?" the older man asked.

"He is the heir of the Tower. He is quite good with a sword and has many different skills, no great master in any of them but can make some good work with what he has. He's also fully immune to poison so it would make sense to be him." The girl explained. She was an ex-member of Judgment after all so she got to work with him more than once.

"Hum, it can become a problem." The man started rubbing his chin in thought. "We will wait till the reinforcements arrive to deal with this situation. Allow neither the fake goddess or those heretic bodyguards to survive." He said looking at all of them.

The big man did not care, as long as he had his candies and good fights it was enough for him.

Lugh (the eyepatch woman) started thinking about how to get her hands on some new treasures. While she did not want to see her former comrades dead, but if that happens their treasures would be free game as long as she was concerned.

Serenity (the assassin girl) was… conflicted. She finally saw the hope she wished for. a hope that she would now have to crush with her own hands to get her dearest desire. She could not help but ask.

"Bishop-sama, is the treatment ready yet?"

He looked at her with pity in his eyes as he knew what she was talking about. The ONLY reason why she did everything they asked of her.

"No, it is still underway. Finding all herbs necessary to seal your poison is not such an easy work." But then he gave her a beautiful and resplendent smile. "But, fear not. It will not take long now for it to be ready and you will be capable of becoming the normal girl you always wanted to be."

She hesitated for an instant but gave him a nod. Them she turned around and left the room.

Unfortunately, she missed the moment the smile of the priest turned into a ridiculing smirk. The only thought on the priest mind at that instant was that he must make sure to make full use of her now as later no one would make use of such a useful tool again.

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. And I must tell you guys now that Serenity is an OC and I will show her backstory next chapter. It is probably even more tragic than Seryu so be warned.**

 **Also, the music I put there actualy exist and I give total credit to the singer for creating such a beautifuls song.**


	26. Chapter 23-5 - Serenity's past

Long ago, there was a village located within a mountainous region within the continent of Russia. What was the name? Unknown, or perhaps it would be better to say that nobody even remembers it existed anymore. One could say that the fate that befell that village was so swift and silent that nobody noticed it, not even batting an eyelash.

Within that small village located in Russia, there once lived a loving couple. The man had been a simple farmer, though he didn't make much money thanks to the Russian mountains being covered in snow most of the season, resulting in great difficulty to grow crops. Yet, the man had been content with his life, his family has owned that farm for generations. It was their pride and joy, making him proud of what he had even if it wasn't much. Always enjoy the little things, that was what he lived by. It kept him from wanting too much or too little. He just wanted things to go smoothly with his life... and then he met the woman.

Love, at first sight, hadn't been something either of them had believed in, yet it happened. it struck them both like they were targeted by the arrows of the Greek god Cupid. Never letting go.

They passed day by day together, and despite the village being poor and there not having enough food for them all to have their fill, they still shared what they could. The couple lived a truly blessed life…except for one teeny tiny detail:

The woman and man did not have a child.

Of course, they had tried to have a child, when a man and woman live together under the same roof for a time that would be bound to happen at some point. However, something terrible had happened to the woman in the past, something that she hadn't known before her relationship with the man had begun. Diseases that make one infertile demonstrate the interconnected relationships of different systems within the body. Pregnancy was ALWAYS an enormously stressful event for a woman's body. Anything that compromises a woman's health can potentially harm her baby. One could say that the process was as fragile as glass, one falsification and the entire thing shatters apart. In some cases, infertility shows there is a condition occurring within a woman's body that will prevent a successful pregnancy.

In this case, the woman couldn't have a child due to both a childhood disorder as well as a powerful trauma on her mind as a result from an accident she had when she was a teenager. That was what the doctor said anyway.

No matter how much they tried the woman never got the baby she so desired. They tried countless times, and all those failures weighed heavily on their minds, like an ever-increasing weight on their shoulders. It... raised more than a few arguments between the two, damaging their relationship in some areas only to reinforce them in others.

Though, the woman could still find solace in the fact that her husband loved her with his very soul, as he was someone whom a lot of women desired, so he had no shortage of partner choices. If one couldn't have a child with him, there would be others who could. However, the man refused to leave her, he wouldn't dare do that to her. He loved her, and he wanted to grow old with her, to father her children and eventually meet the grim reaper with her at his side.

Sadly, one of those didn't seem possible for them...

A fact that hammered itself into their minds more brutally than either of them would let on.

Many nights had been spent with little more than tears of sadness and sorrow, sorrow bringing up thoughts of how God never lets them have that little miracle to them. When that failed they tried to pray to every single deity they could think of, no matter what the deity was said to be like or if they are even related to fertility.

They didn't want anything like money, power or fame.

None of those of which most humans desired down to their very core.

No, what they wanted... was much simpler, yet to them oh so much more precious.

They just wanted a child. A small bundle of happiness to call their own.

That was how it was for years, and when they were about to give up a miracle happened. The woman got pregnant.

It was a sudden development, taking their sorrowful world by storm. They could only thank whoever did this on their knees shredding tears of the purest joy.

The couple became so happy that they celebrated as if their biggest wish had been fulfilled, leading to the woman giving her husband one of the most passion filled nights that he had ever gotten from her since their tries for a child began. Nothing could have contained the joy that both future parents felt at the thought of a little pair of feet running down the halls of their small house in the morning.

Nothing at all.

Nine months later a small baby girl was born. She had violet hair like her mother, brown eyes like her father and such a cute and serene face while sleeping that the couple decided to call her that, Serenity.

Yet... neither of them would question how it had come to be possible that they were able to have a child so suddenly. And if this was really a blessing from God, or a curse from the devil.

* * *

6 years later

It was a good day for Serenity. It was a celebration night, Christmas. She spent the day playing with the other children in the village while the parents cooked the meals for the night.

After playing the whole day she went with her parents to the church before it was time to eat. She felt extra-special as she convinced the priest to let her help in distributing the wine for the Eucharist.

She even managed to take a small taste of the wine with her pinky, she thought it was delicious.

After the cult ended all members of the village went to eat the prepared fest that the grownups made. The food, the drinks and the laughter that permeated the place were like a dream come true for the village as a whole. That was the best day in Serenity's life.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh" Serenity screamed when waking up. She had been having nightmares for a few weeks now. She could never truly remember then, but it was always terrifying for her. It made the day she had even more special for her, as it was just so happy when compared to the scary dreams she had been having.

.

.

.

After calming down the girl noticed that her parents did not come this time around. Normally they would have come already, but this time they were not here.

Getting worried she decided to go see them. After getting out of the covers she realized that the temperature is very low (it was close to the end of autumn in Russia so being cold was a given). She was afraid that her parents may have caught a cold or some other disease, so she quickly went to see if they were fine.

When she entered their room she saw that both of them had twisted faces as if in pain. She got desperate and decided to do the best she could to try and save them. She cleaned the sweat off their foreheads, gave them water, prepared the best soup she could (it probably was too salty but she did it the best she could, even if she got some minor burns because she worked with fire). But no matter what she tried nothing seemed to work.

She was so desperate that she decided to try what her mother always did for her, give a kiss on the forehead while praying to god for them to get better.

After a few minutes, she saw that her parents started getting even worse. She could even see her dear mother with a small fillet of blood coming out of her mouth and her dad shaking uncontrollably.

Panic rose in her young mind. She could not understand why this was happening, not one bit, and in her desperation, the young girl sped out the house she grew up in (not even putting any clothes on, such was the panic in her mind) to get to the doctor of the village.

On the corner of her mind she noticed that there was no sound on the whole village, but on her desperation, she ignored this in favor to get to the doctor as fast as possible. When she got to the doctor's house she started knocking.

She screamed and knocked the door as much as she could, screaming to the top of her lungs that she needed help, but no matter how much she called there was no sound inside. The girl could only think that she needed to get inside and, remembering some of the lessons her daddy taught her when she was younger, she unlocked the door using a small pin that she had on her hair.

She herself did not remember how she learned to do that, and honestly, it did not matter for her at that time.

When she found him she saw that he was in the same state that her parents were this morning. Only, his condition looked much worse with those strange pustules growing over his face, neck, and body. Some of his body parts looked like they would fall off at any moment, and his form overall looked absolutely horrendous, like he was a rotting corpse that was decomposing rapidly before her vert eyes. Fear crept on her mind as she knew that the doctor looked even worse than her parents did. Without thinking she went ahead and nudged his shoulder… didn't really do anything good for him, in fact, it just seemed to make him all the worse.

Seeing this she imagined that it must be a serious disease and that her father must have gotten worst. So, she did the only logical thing in this situation (in her opinion). She went for the drug cabinet that was on the doctor's room and took all medicine as for her medicine made people better so if she gave all those medicines to her parents they will get better in no time!

After getting as many medicine bottles as she could she ran back to her house.

"Dad, Mom. Do not worry. This medicine will make you all better. I know it will." She spoke under her breath while panting heavily, vapor released from her mouth while she went about running to her parents' room. A small hope was fighting the despair she faced before. As long as she gave this medicine to her parents they will get better, this was the mantra that she was reciting over and over on her head.

That hope was all she had at the time.

When she got on the room she saw her father with a mute scream on his face with a purplish glow on his skin, her mother had blackish purple blood flowing out of every orifice in a disfigured image of the make-up she usually had.

The vision was so terrifying that Serenity, a girl of no more than 6-year-old, simply could not move. She stood there as if she could not comprehend the scene in front of her. All medicine fell to the ground. All those glass bottles were shattered on the ground. Serenity, ignoring this, decided to walk to her parents, not seeming to notice the glass shards that entered her foot.

"Daddy, Mommy please wake up." She started nudging them. A neutral tone of voice, as if she was dead. "Please wake up.

Why don't you wake up?

Please wake up.

Please.

I will do anything.

I will clean my room.

I will do the dishes.

I will listen to whatever you say.

I will be a good girl.

So please, please wake up."

Tears built themselves like fungus in her eyes, growing all the more seeing how bad her parents looked. Even as she tried to stop herself by rubbing her eyes, she just couldn't stop the tears. Desperation filled her mind, heart, and soul as she tried to think of something, and in her despair, she clung to the only possible solution to her. They were just taking a nap. Yes, it was a nap.

Soon they will wake up. They will hug her and say everything is fine. They will make a delicious soup and it will all be fine. It will happen. She knew it will.

And so she kept calling up to them. Asking for them to wake up. Promising everything that she could think off. She just wanted for them to wake up.

She did not want to be alone.

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They never woke up again.

* * *

Two days later

Serenity stayed by her parent's side during two whole days, lifeless like a corpse. She wanted to stay there forever, ignoring everything else, but her stomach won the battle eventually, and she left the room to look for some food.

While leaving the room she looked at the outside world and all she could see was that everything for her was greyer. As if the colors had started to vanish, never to be seen again.

She decided to ignore that in prowl of looking for some food so that she could have something to fill her stomach. All she could find were some old pieces of bread, they were hard, and some biscuits. She did not know how to cock o she ate what she could and went back to her parent's side, to wait for when they wake up.

An idea hit her, and she raced throughout the village, looking for any signs of life. She went into other people's houses, part of her hoping to be scolded by the occupants due to being too loud. That would at least show her she wasn't alone anymore, and give her someone to grieve over her family's deaths with. Unfortunately for her, reality had been in a cruel, cruel mood today for she came to a startling discovery after the 10th attempt: everyone was dead, she was alone, and that was the sole truth.

Everyone was dead... save for her.

When she came back she got a new look at her family and the reality hit her, there was no one there anymore as she was the only one left had no tears to cry with at this point, so she did the only thing her childish mind could suggest to the distraught girl. She ran. Ran from the village from her life and everyone else. The only thought on her head at that point in time was to get away from there, not noticing that everywhere her tears fell the plants died.

She decided to leave it all behind. She could no more live on there as she could not bear to see her house anymore, the place that once was so full of life being reduced to a place full of nothing.

And so she left her home, a place that was full of light that was sniffed away unknowingly to the world at large. All the life that once permeated that village, replaced by the cold indifference of death.

* * *

3 months later

It has been three months now. Serenity was hidden away in a small alley of a city in Russia. Her clothes were no more than rags as she could not buy any new ones due to not having the money. Her hair was kept short as it got on the way when she was on the forest scavenging for food. She was malnourished and dirty as she could not take a bath or all the fishes on the river would die. She tried once and seeing all the death it caused made her refuse to even want to try something like it again.

And to make matters worse there were the nightmares that never ended and the fact that she was being hunted.

The ones that were trying to find her were strange. They had white skin, pointed ears, a black thin tail and bat-like wings on their backs.

They had been hunting her for two months now, since the time she took a bath on the river and many people died. Taking notice of this strange happening those strange decided to investigate and when they realized the reason the decision was set for them. To hunt her down.

She tried to run away when she realized that she was being hunted. She ran and ran they kept following her, she tried her best but was captured in the end.

The leader like men (he was wearing the most extravagant clothes in there after all) had held her chin and started to say that she would make a good addition to his peerage. The bright side is that before the leader could do anything to her with his strange chess piece (a pawn) he started convulsing. Taking advantage of the time that everyone was distracted looking out for the leader she managed to escape. The bad side was that since that day she had been on the run as those bat-like people keep coming after her.

The only light she had left right now was this dog that she has found, or better yet found her. He was an ugly one, his hair was disheveled and with a mix of brown, yellow white and black. He always had some flies flying on top of him and his breath smelled like rotten fish. He was the best and only companion she had ever had since her family died.

They worked together to look for food in the dumpster and whenever she was in trouble he would come to rescue her. It was like he was her hero.

He was the only good thing she had at this point in time.

.

.

.

.

.

She was looking at the street of this city. She saw children her age laughing and smiling without a single worry in the world while she was here eating garbage and worried for her life.

It has been like this for so long (in her head at least, as it has been just a few months in reality) that she thought she did not felt anything seeing this scene anymore.

THUD

A small girl slipped on the floor.

BWAAAHHHHHH

She started crying and make a ruckus. It serves you right, Serenity thought as she did not like the girl. Long crimson red hair, blue eyes, using the latest fashion of clothes, a warm coat over her shoulders and her parents beside her. She had everything that Serenity does not have.

Serenity smile was short-lived as the girl's mother approached the child and lifted her in a hug showering her with kisses saying.

"Don't cry Rias, my precious darling. Everything is fine. We will always be here for you and it will all be okay. Anytime you fall we will be here, I mean look we are here now." The girl slowly stopped crying. "That is my brave girl. Remember, mom and dad, we love you."

After that, the family kept walking. Serenity looked at the ground and soon enough started sobbing. Tears fell from her face as she remembered her family. The happy meals that she would never have again, the love she did not get any more.

Her dog companion seeing her distress approached her. It tried to nudge her slightly and she simply hugged him. She needed some warmth or she would not see a reason to live anymore.

The problem was that after her tears fell on her only companion he started trembling as blood came out of his mouth. Serenity looked terrified when she saw her companion dying. His warmth lost forever to her.

Her cries were left unattended… or it would be like this if it wasn't for some clapping behind her.

She turned around with dead-fish eyes and saw one of those bat people there. He had an evil smile on his face as he approached her.

"Magnificent. To think even touching you would be enough to die. You would have made a great addition if not for killing my nephew." then he grabbed her by her hair (he was wearing gloves as he noticed that she needed skin contact to kill) and yanked her to outside the city. He wanted to go back to the underworld to execute her in the most appropriate way possible. Maybe taking some samples of her blood and everything to use as a weapon against those hateful Fake-Satan's that stole the name of his glorious family, the Beelzebub's.

The girl did not react anymore. She did not care if she lived or died at this point, she was cursed. Her existence was a mistake, death given form, a curse.

While taking the child away the devil failed to notice that he was being observed by someone.

When the devil got on the forest and was about to teleport he felt a presence behind him. The attack was too fast, not even a shadow being seen where the attack passed. To survive the devil ended up releasing the girl's hair and jumped back to avoid the strike.

The person that appeared was a middle-aged man with black hair and a normal face. The kind that would disappear in a crowd for how much normal he was. But the sword on his hand was another matter entirely. It was a golden colored sword shaped like a long Kris with the bade having an empty space in the form of a diamond.

"Do not interfere with devil's business, exorcist." The devil said the last word as if it was an insult.

"Sorry, but no. This is church territory, and you are not only invading but is trying to kidnap a child. As a soldier of God, I cannot allow such a thing." The man said lunging at the devil.

The sword was no more than a shadow in the eyes of the girl. Too fast to accompany.

The man crossed the distance between him and the devil in a blink of an eye. Using the time when the devil was trying to make a barrier the man simple cut the devil's neck.

It was very simple and efficient. In close to no time at all the man ended the battle, if it could even be called that.

The man them took a pencil and paper and started writing a report right then and there.

"A devil from a branch of the Beelzebub clan. Identifiable by appearance as Xylphonidos Beelzebub, old crimes included kidnapping and torture of Cristian's. Execution allowed by the pope years ago. Killed with a cut in the jugular with Excalibur Rapidly."

After finishing writing his report the man turned to the girl and decided to introduce himself.

"Hey, little girl. My name is Ewald Cristaldi, what is your name?"

The girl looked at him with her dead-fish eyes and did not answer him. She probably could not even come to care enough about anything anymore to care about such a thing as her name.

What was not expected, however is what happened next…

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The girl suddenly started screaming desperately as a sudden pain invaded her mind and body.

Ewald took a step back. He might be a good man but he was not stupid. He was looking at the girl for some time now and he saw when, after she touched a dog while crying he died almost instantly. He did not know if it was the skin contact that killed the animal or if it was her tears, but he preferred to not take that risk.

Helping her is something he would do, but dying pointlessly is not on his 'to do list'.

The girl kept screaming and screaming as the pain invaded every little piece of her being. She had passed out of pain long ago as her mind could not bear the amount of pain and memories being implanted on it.

After some time, she stopped screaming and a difference could be seen on her body. Her hair got shiny and with a beautiful purple hue, her eyes turned from brown to a bluish purple and her skin gained a gray tone.

Ewald decided to take her with him to the church. There would be a better place than in the woods. He used some seals he had on his jacket to lift the girl and carry her unconscious body with him.

She would be treated better on the church than in anywhere else. He was confident on that. The church was a good place, a place where good people could help this girl have a normal life.

He was wrong.

* * *

3 months later

Serenity was looking out of her window on the little room she was allocated in. She saw children her age training with serious faces but they all had that spirit of youth on them, working to make a better world and all that. They would later go play and they had their rooms and warm meals ready, sometimes even ice-cream.

She was different. Her room was a simple room with just a hard bed and a small chair beside it. No books, no tv, no contact with the external world. The food given to her was only the rests that the other children did not eat, all cold and soggy. If there was not enough food for her she could request for more, but no one cared about her requests there.

Since the day she woke up in the church, she has been in this room. After her body stabilized they made a full check up on her. The results were more than simply interesting for the scientists of the church, they were revolutionary. For her, the only interesting thing was that her physical appearance changed, but she did not know the meaning or cared about it either.

They strapped her to her bed every few days to take 'samples' of her blood, tissues, and anything of importance they may think of. Apparently, they were trying to make a medicine capable of healing all poisons by using her body. If it wasn't for healing magic they applied after every session she would have died on day one during those collection days, and she had to experience them every two days.

She did not care anymore. About anything really.

She did not care about pain, about her life or death.

And so she spent her time simple being, she was no more than a biological machine at that point. Her only relieve, if it could even be called that, was her dreams.

But she never got nice dreams. She always dreamed of a different her. She was an assassin on those dreams. Every night she saw herself seducing men after men to them has them die when they kiss her. It was always the same.

But last night the dream was different. She dreamed of a man, his name was Seiji Jinga. At first he also died after kissing her, but strangely enough, after some time, he came back!

The feeling of knowing that she could touch him with no fear of him dying, just like that, was simply amazing. The happiness that her dream-self had was no greater than her real-self did have when she saw that possibility.

Would it be possible for there to exist someone out there that she could touch with no fear? If so she wanted to be with this person. No matter what, she just wanted to be with someone, anyone. Even if he was abusive, ugly, stinky, evil, a saint, a devil, a monster or an angel, it just didn't matter to Serenity.

She just wanted to feel warm again, to have more colors than this dull gray that permeated everything, bringing life back to her existence. To have someone that would not die like her dog did, like the doctor did, like her parents did, like everyone else did.

KNOCK KNOCK

A man entered her room the very same day. He had a languid body-type and used expensive robes. He had a light blue hair done in a ponytail and carried himself as if he was the most important person in the world, which in his opinion is the truth.

"Hello, Serenity. My name is Maxwell. I am coming here with a proposition to you." He said with a smile on his face.

She looked at him warily. In her dreams, she saw some men like him. They were not good people and all they do is for self-interest.

"I am here to offer you training in a special division of the church. We would like to give you a better home than this." He said with a voice that would be convincing if she hadn't seen a man use the same tone multiple times in her dreams.

She did not move a muscle that could indicate that she would agree to his proposition. For all she knew, he might be trying to kill her or something along those lines.

"It seems that you are not such an innocent girl after all. Well, I have a different proposition them. Serve me and I will give you a way to stop your body from killing everything you touch."

That stirred her. But-

"That is impossible." She answered in her small voice.

"Nothing is impossible to the grace of our Lord. This" he took out a small bottle from his robes "is the result of our experiments on you up till now. It allows plants to survive your touch. It will not be long before we are capable of creating medicine that will allow animals to survive as well."

Hearing this her eyes started shinning with desire.

"BUT, the cost is quite high for the project continuation and the top brass is not willing to pay for more. That is the reason for my proposition. If you work for me and is capable enough I will ensure the project continuation. So, what do you say Serenity, do you want a chance for a normal life?"

Her eyes were an inferno of desire at this point. Her biggest desire is a normal life, no not a normal life, just to live again. To feel the warmth long lost to her. But she needed to confirm it first.

"I want proof that the medicine work."

"Sure. I expected as much." Then he turned around and got outside, after a minute he came back and brought back a rose. Maxwell them proceeded to use a bit of the antidote on the rose and them he gave the rose to give it to Serenity.

She carefully, as if afraid of hurting the plant took it on her fingers. She waited a few minutes and nothing happened.

Tears of joy came out of her eyes as she kneeled on the floor before Maxwell swearing fealty in exchange for they making said the medicine. Maxwell smiled and then took her away from that room. What Serenity failed to see was that the rose died after an hour, it was dry, old and a sickly purple.

The medicine never worked, it just made the effect take some additional time to take effect. The project was abandoned by the church as they just could not make any progress. The Iscariots took Serenity that day, not for her work or for the desire to continue the project made to save lives; no, saving a pagan girl that was not a Catholic Cristian was never something they would care to do. Why would the 'true' soldiers of God care about doing a good action to an infidel of the true church? What they were trying to make a weapon, one to kill all other factions and supernatural beings.

There could only be one true God. And only one group could ever be his messengers, the Iscariots alone. Serenity was simply a useful tool to reach said objectives .

* * *

10 years later

Serenity was now a full-fledged assassin. She could move with an amazing flexibility and carried numerous weapons in her person at all times. She could completely hide in any shadow and fully control all her body movements. Her only driving force was her desire for warmth.

She was promised just one more mission, just this last one and her desire would come true. She then came to Okinawa with Skin Bolic, a man that controlled lightning thanks to his sacred gear **Vajrapani armor** , Lugh, a woman that was crazy for treasures, some junior exorcists from Iscariots, a few fallen angels that worked under Kokabiel (a man that was on an alliance with the Iscariots to start a new war) and father Million, a direct subordinate of Maxwell.

The mission was to kill the fake goddess descendent Miku Izayoi to stop her in her attempt to hypnotize the masses.

She honestly did not care about who the target was or what she had to do, all she cared about was making sure she got the medicine. That she could be someone instead of something. That the warmth so long lost could come back.

It was the only desire she had left.

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. or at least did not think I was too depressing during it. Also, I give my thanks for Hunterxkiller86 for the help he gave me in this chapter. Anyone is more than welcome to send me a PM about what you think of the chapter and what would you like to see in the future.**


	27. Chapter 24

Castiel P.O.V.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

I should not have been so hasty as to use that skill.

That is why I don't like to use this skill of my head spirit bone. Seeing the past of the others is good and all but sometimes it backfires. It let me see the past of the target and if the emotions are strong enough even feel part of what the person felt.

This is one of those times. Seeing the past of Serenity, I can't truly hate her anymore. I mean, how could I?

I thought she was just a simple killer like all the others I saw before, killing for pleasure or just to get paid. Her poisoning Seryu made me fix the image that she must be a coward or something.

But now I honestly can't say that anymore.

Being brought to this life on the supernatural side because of a curse out of nowhere that you had no control over. Seeing everything around you dies at the first touch. That is terrible no matter how you see it.

DRIP

DRIP

Shit, I even started crying for her. Focus. Castiel, you need to focus.

She is an enemy, no matter what happened to her you must ignore it to fulfill your mission. Focus, Castiel you need to focus.

Liberating a breath, I did not even know I was holding, I stood up from the spot I was on and went to the bathroom to clean my face from all traces of tears. It would not do well to show them to the others when I explain to them the information I obtained.

As I got out I made a call to the others via message to find me in my room. Just the Sister was to remain beside Miku as she had expressively said that she did not want to see me anywhere near her right now.

I decided to indulge her for some time. What I needed to explain was not necessary info for her but for my group and Kanda it was.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to us." Kanda asked in his normal voice, which means he had an irritated and annoyed tone laced all over those words.

Everyone else was also looking at me. They were all waiting for my answer.

"I got the intel of who is responsible for this last few attacks. They are the Iscariot organization." That got the attention of everyone in the room. The Iscariot was a fanatical organization that used to work under the pope direct orders, but was excommunicated because they were overly zealous in their wish to rid the world of all the 'heathens', as they say. They were quite famous as a group that was willing to do anything as long as they got what they wanted. "Their objective is to kill Miku due to her being a daughter of gods, or at least that's what I could get. If there are some other motivators I do not know."

"Boss, and what about the enemy forces?" Seryu asked hugging Koro to her chest. 'She is already fine', I keep reciting this mantra on my head whenever I look at her as it alleviates the stress I am feeling a bit.

"There were those we saw on the last attack: Lugh, I could not see what weapons she had in total; Skin Bolic being that big man, he has a sacred gear called **Vajrapani Armor** that allows him to control thunder; Serenity being the assassin, for what I gartered it will need to be me to face her. There is also a priest from the Iscariot here. He does not seem to be the fighting type but he must have considerable sway in the organization so we can expect more exorcists coming."

They all absorbed what I said and tried to digest the information. There was not a lot, but it gave us an idea of what to expect for the next few days.

"Is there any more info that we need to know? Their hideout location for instance." Emily asked. It always amazes me, how someone so lazy most of the time can act so professional when the time is needed.

"Unfortunately I did not get that intel. For what I saw they had many different hideout spots throughout the city and they change locations constantly. Even if we attacked one of those locations there is no guaranty that they will be on that spot and they could have traps ready or something along those lines." I explained.

We were in a condition where we can only defend and counter the offenders, not my preferred course of action.

"Tch, so you got next to none useful information. Useless." Kanda said.

I think this guy needs to train a bit of boxing. Remove some of his stress and anger on a punching bag may do him some good.

"I would not say that it is useless. We confirmed that the enemy is part of Iscariots." I pointed out making Kanda have a serious look on his face (also known as one of the two faces he is capable of giving, the other being an irritated look). "From that, we can suppose that they will be getting reinforcements of more exorcists. Another thing of notice is that while most exorcists are weak by themselves there might be strong ones mixed and there could be more of those monsters in there." I explained.

"What do you mean by monsters, Castiel?" Okuyasu asked. He has been awfully quiet for some time now. Probably thinking about what we were saying and trying to comprehend it better, this is probably his first mission after all.

"Monsters may be the incorrect terms but is the best definition. You can also call them monstrosities as it also fits very well with them. And by them, I meant enemies like the one I faced, an exorcist that was modified to look more like a best than a human." Everyone looked confused by this explanation. Let's try to be more specific. "He had a hard skin, claws, and tail when transformed. He also gained a great amount of power, he jumped a whole level from high mid-class to high high-class." I explained. The silver lining is that when transformed he seemed to have lost all notion of control over his powers so defeating him was not difficult, but if he could actually use his powers properly the fight would be much more difficult.

"But the most troublesome part was that he could regenerate pretty fast from any wounds, and I do mean any as I took out his whole arm once and it just regrew as if nothing. Luckily I had a curse that could help me deal with him. From what I can gather the only ones here that can beat them safely are myself, thanks to this curse I know, and you Okuyasu, thanks to your sacred gear." I explained and they all got quite tense. Okuyasu in special looked quite conflicted, I guess he still is not ready for actual killing.

"So what are we going to do exactly Castiel?" Emily asked.

"The plan will not change much. I will accompany Miku during the day while you guys should scout the surrounding areas of where we go. Look for those dressed like priests or anything suspicious, but do not engage until authorization is given. We need to make sure to be capable of defeating whoever we find with certainty." I explained my idea.

The others nodded. Afterward, we just discussed the details of what we will do and each of them went to prepare for the day. Everyone except Emily and me that is.

As soon as most of the others left I just sit in my chair and reclined my head back. I took a deep breath as Emily just stayed there looking at me by my side.

"How bad was it?" Emily asked. She is one of the few people out there that know the full extent of what this skill from the skull spirit bone allows me to do. She also knows how hard it can possibly be for me to actually kill the person that I saw the full past.

"Bad." Was my blunt answer.

"… that much, huh." She really knows me too well. Just for those few words, she could understand what I must be feeling.

We then entered a silent moment. No one said anything or tried to say anything.

After 2 minutes like that, I decided to ask.

"… Emily, do you think I can do it? Kill that girl I mean. Her past… no, practically her whole life was just a bad thing after the other and even if she had killed way too many people up till now I cannot say that she is truly evil." My eyes started getting wet. Shit, there must be something in my eyes. Zelretch and his crappy presents, even when he is not around he still finds ways to confuse me. "I just don't know if I will be capable of doing it, you know. Why couldn't she be just a crazy bitch that likes to kill just for the sake of killing? It would be so much easier."

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my neck. Emily brought me into a hug where she stayed silent for an instant before she said.

"I know it must be hard. Whenever you go on a mission you always go to the most dangerous spot, you always go and do whatever is necessary to complete the job… even when it pains you. You don't need to think too deeply right now, just do what you got to do." She then gave me a smile and asked. "What would Lancer-sensei say at a time like this?"

"He'd say 'Stop being an idiot and just do whatever is right for you.' And then he'd punch me for being an idiot." I gave a weak chuckle at that thought.

She gave a light chuckle hearing this then said.

"Yes. So let's just go ahead and do what we must to complete the job." She said removing her arms from my neck and with a confident face got out of the room.

I will go to. I still have things to prepare before we continue on this mission… but let's stay here for one more minute to recompose myself.

* * *

A few hours later

This is the second day I am having to follow Miku. It has not grown any better. She has been treating me as if she can't stand my presence since we met, but after last night she simply shows an absolute loathe to my presence.

It is like I have done the worst thing possible for her.

Well, whatever. After the dream, I had of Serenity last night I honestly do not have the patience to deal with Miku's hate.

We were on the way to a meeting with one of the sponsors of Miku. Being an idol may seem good but they spent A LOT of time having to go from one sponsor to the next, and it is more work than it is worth. Normally it should be the manager doing this sponsor part, but for some reason, Miku is adamant in being present in any and all meetings.

We were waiting for the driver to take us there when I got a message.

"Boss, we just got visual on a person in church clothes walking in your direction." Seryu warned me.

I answered in a whisper.

"Understood." I looked to the sides and noticed that there were too many people right now so we can't move carelessly. I need to think about the best course of action to deal with this. I opened communications with the other members of the group. "Emily, I need you to go and prepare a bounded field that forces the ones without magic away from here. Sister, go to the top of the building and find a sniper position. Okuyasu, you stay beside Seryu to the case there are more approaching and especially to the case that there are those monsters around in disguise. Kanda… you do your thing." I can't order him after all. He is listening to what I say as long as it aligns with his mission and he sees reason in following, if not he'd completely ignore me. "Remember, the most important is to survive, and if you are to see Serenity run. Not a second thought, just run. I am the only one here who can face her with any sense of security."

As I and Miku waited for the priest we were doing our own preparations. I had summoned my **Kupriotes** and put a simple illusion spell on it to not let unrelated people see it. I also silently put some runes on the blade for greater cut and granting it a corrosive capacity in case the priest is one of those monsters. Miku, on the other hand, changed to her idol attire that was enchanted by her mother and some of the other female goddesses from the Shinto pantheon. The energy that she started to release, while not aggressive at all in nature, was at least equal to a low high-class. She might not be good for combat but she does have some decent amount of energy in her.

As we waited I got a clear view of the people around me. There was no one with a magical signature, but then again I had hidden my signature when I was going to Kuoh so not feeling magic around me proves jack-shit.

The man in priest clothes finally arrived. He was not the man I saw before when I was looking at Serenity past but my guard is not lowered, if anything it just had risen a bit more. It just means that the other one is somewhere else and that he likely received reinforcements earlier than expected.

He had the appearance of a fortyish man with a slightly bulging belly and partially bald head.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Castiel Emyia-sama. I come with a proposition to you from my associates." The man said with a slight bow while looking only at me and fully ignoring Miku's existence. "Our proposition is that you leave the town till tomorrow or face our full power. It is merely a formality, but we do not want to face the Tower because of one bad decision of a youngster that is overreaching." He said with what he believes is a pleasant smile. It was not.

Miku looks at him for an instant and then at me. It is likely that she is wondering what my decision will be.

"Sorry, but that is impossible." I said as if it was obvious, which it was. "I have no intentions of allowing you people to have your way in this matter. We are contracted to protect an important V.I.P. after all."

He then looks confused at me, then at Miku, then at me again, and then he started chuckling. At first, it was a quiet one but quickly turned into hysterical laughter.

"What is it funny about what I just said?" I said getting annoyed by this man.

"Ha ha ha… sorry, it is just that it has been so long since I heard such a funny joke and I couldn't contain myself." He then looked at me mockingly and said. "Do you really not know what you are protecting?" he then looked at Miku and his eyes flashed with desire, disgust, and some other minor emotions. "Why risk your life for an epithet-less goddess that is no more than a breeding tool?"

Hearing his words Miku went mad. She gave a scream that turned into a shockwave that eliminated everything in its path. It was very strong and should have, by all rights eliminated the man whole.

But, before it could reach him a flash of light happened to allow another person to appear. He created a magic shield that managed to defend against the attack.

"Well, isn't it cute. The little bird with no wings is trying to defeat me with a scream. Sorry but that is impossible for you. This guardian of mine will not be beaten by the likes of you." The fat man said as the other person showed his features. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. His face had many scars running all over it but the most interesting aspect was his eyes. There was no life or spirit there. No life or soul.

No, what I thought is wrong. It is not that there is no life or spirit in his eyes, but-

"How could you force the dead to fight for you? Isn't you a 'man of God'?" I could not help but ask, disgust covering each of mine words. I may not be religious (just in case of necessity like most normal people out there) but this is absurd. This man is no more than a walking corpse at this point, his spirit and life are no more but he still moves.

"How rude. He is not dead, per-say, but his life-force and spirit were turned into a pure magical capacity to better serve the Lord as my bodyguard. It is a better use of a true believer than simply being a family man with family and kids don't you agree" No other way around it, this man is nuts. "OH, but don't worry about the family either, we are very thoughtful so we did the same for the wife and the baby is to be trained as a soldier of God and learn of how great it is to live and die for his grace. It is truly a shame that the project to make this useful tools was stopped. These soldiers are just so practical, never tire, never hunger, never fear death. Truly the perfect followers of our magnanimous God, that even allows for the most useless existences ways to fight for his name." He then looked at the sky and said. "And I that work in Gods wishes am truly blessed by his glory." At that the happy smile on his face was undeniable.

He looks so proud of himself and talks like this poor man, that was turned into this... thing, is a happy and good thing for the man himself. Like being turned into this is an honor. Were the mages from the other world also like that? If so I am happy to be born here.

"Anyway, we wait for your answer. If you leave until tomorrow, we will not attack your group. If you remain we will use our total power to destroy you and all other guards." The fat bastard then disappeared in another flash of light, it must be the teleportation spell they are using.

After he left Miku dropped to her knees. She was trembling, breathing hard, sweating heavily, eyes darting in all directions and she put her hand on her chest as if it was in pain.

Seeing this I realized that she was having a panic attack. To deal with this I need to calm her down, make her get distracted. I drooped to my knees as well and looked her straight in the eyes but did not touch her as I started talking.

"Miku, calm down. I am here and nothing bad is going to happen as long as I am here." That seemed to have caught her attention, but she was still hyperventilating and the trembling did not stop. "Let's sing. You like singing don't you? Sing a pretty song and just let all the fear go out through it. Come on."

She sang. It was the same one that I heard she singing in her room more she sang the calmer she got. During the entire time, she was looking at my face as if looking for something.

At the end of the song, she was back to normal. She then stood up and turned around to not look at my face as she asked a single question.

"As long as I am with you, I am safe?" she asked. A slight tremble in her voice.

"I can't promise that I can protect you from everything," that made her tense up a bit, she must be thinking that I will abandon her right now. "BUT as long as you are on my side I will protect you with everything I have." It is the truth. My objective is protecting her and I will do exactly that. Always complete your mission, this doctrine was beaten into my skull since I started helping in the Tower.

That seemed to relax her a bit. She simply started walking away from me as the car arrived and she said, in a whisper that no one but me that was close by could hear.

"Liar."

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I know it may have offended some Catholics when I put that fat bastard talking, but I am going to say here and now that I have no problem whatsoever with any religion. I put that part there so as to show how someone can pervert and change something so pure like God's teachings into something so terrible.**

 **Also, next 2 chapters will be about Miku's past. I know it may not be what some people want, and yes it is terrible, but I want to show how some of the girls are damaged and why they act the way they do. Miku's problem about trust to males, or lack there off, will be explained in the next two chapters. Also, I will be using the name of two characters that I deeply hate with almost every fiber of my being so expect me to bash them very much. And there will be a very minor lemon in the next chapter, but I will not show much of it and it will be mostly just to pass a point I want to make across.**


	28. Chapter 24-5 Miku's past part 1

**Writer's Note: there will be a very short lemon scene in there and the themes at the end of this chapter are not pretty so for those that dislike it you are all welcome to jump this one and go straight to the next. Also, I did a triple release as 'adislt' put a comment about how he disliked the fact that the story would be interrupted for more back-story.**

 **I apologize if it troubled others and as such, I did just that. I ALWAYS read the comments and try to answer them via PM so anyone that wants to tell me anything is more than welcome.**

 **Now, for the story.**

* * *

The Japanese pantheon, a world in and of itself, with many lakes, people and all sorts of wondrous sights. In a park, there was the sound of laughter and kids playing all the time. They were the children of the Yokai and Shinto Gods, they always enjoyed their time together as one big family. Except for one.

"Go away, ugly."

"Yeah, go away."

"We don't want you here."

"It will only infect us with uselessness."

"Go away."

These and more were spoken by some of the boys toward a little girl. She was the smallest one of the bunch, had indigo eyes and hair that was disheveled.

Seeing that she wasn't leaving yet the kids thought for a while until they used a word their parents used to describe why they shouldn't be involved with that girl.

"Epithet-less."

"Epithet-less."

"Epithet-less."

"Epithet-less."

"Epithet-less."

"Epithet-less."

And such was what the kids used to make the girl go away. They themselves did not know what being epithet-less meant but it 'seems like an insult by the way papa and mama used so it should work' was at the kids were thinking.

Even the little girl did not fully comprehend what that meant, but it was an insult, that she knows.

Not being capable of standing there anymore she ran away as the boys kept mocking her. She ran back to the compound where her mother lives.

When she saw the house, that was just like an example of what a Japanese mansion would look like, she entered and went straight to her mother side. When she was about to open the door she heard the sound of people talking.

"… know that it is the only way. If not like this she will not be married, no one would ever want to marry an epithet-less." Was the sound of her father, Sarutahiko Okami, that had come to visit. He was a man that looked thirty with a towering build, long bear and a big nose (all the girl's prettiness came from her mother). He has a sculpted body worth of his title as one of the Gods of Martial Arts.

"But, but what about her feelings?" Her mother asked.

"*sigh* I know it is not ideal, but there is only one path for her. The moment she was born like that the only way the best we can do is this. There is no other path for her." Her father said with a heavy and desolate tone.

"… I understand. Do it your way then, but make sure that you get the best result possible." Her mother said with a serious face.

"I will." And with that Miku heard steps approaching the door. She ran to hide in another corridor and after hearing her father leaving she decided to go see her mother.

When she entered the room she saw her mother with a defeated face, as if the worst thing happened to her.

"Mama, is there something wrong?" The girl could not help but ask.

The mother looked at her child and gave a forced smile.

"Nothing at all dear. Everything is fine." She then looked at her confused and asked. "Wasn't you going out to play in the park?"

The girl had a pained face when she said.

"I went there, but those stupid boys kept calling me names and telling me to go away." She then turned to her mother and asked with a curious expression. "Mom, what is 'epithet-less'?"

Hearing those words, the mother got a furious face.

"Where did you hear that word?" The mother asked.

"The boys were saying that to me." She did not know why but she chose to not say that she heard her father say that word too. It seemed like a word that would make her mom mad and if she got mad with father because of that Miku would be sad.

"*sigh* Come here Miku."

The little girl, Miku, approached her mother. Her mother then put her on her lap and started talking.

"Do you know what an epithet is Miku?"

"It is what defines a God or Goddess. It determines our powers and what we can become, if you are a God of water you can manipulate water, if you are a God of a mountain you become super-strong when on that mountain." Miku said with a puffed chest. She was proud of the fact that she knew that from what the teachers taught… even if the teachers always looked at her strangely.

"Yes, practically all Gods got an epithet. Mine is a goddess of the arts, dance, dawn, and mirth. Your father is the boss god of the earthly Shinto Gods, he also is the God of Martial Arts, strength and guidance." Her mother explained.

"And me, mommy? I am a goddess of what?"

"… nothing. You are what is known as epithet-less." Her mother explained. "An epithet is received at birth but you did not get any."

Miku looks down but did not understand what did that entails.

"What does it means them, mommy?"

"It means that you have no defining characteristic. And because of that, no God will want to marry you."

SHOCK

Miku was shocked by hearing those words. She did not know what it means to be married or not, but she heard the maids saying that being married is the best thing for anyone. And at school, she learned that any goddess is biologically made to love more than any mortal do out of sheer biological instinct, so hearing that no one will marry her was a shock.

'Will no one love me then?' was what the girl was thinking.

"What does it mean no one will want to marry me?"

"It is because on the wedding night between gods when the girl and the boy… are planting a special seed… their energies combine and they share their epithet for an instant. Generally, it means nothing much, but if one of the two is epithet-less the one that has an epithet will lose his." Her mother's face managed to become even sadder when she continued. "Not only that but an Epithet-less God age just like a human. Losing a life that could last for dozens of thousands of years is not something any God is willing to accept."

The girl got very depressed hearing those words. It is like she was a 'defective product' so to say.

"So, do I have to marry a mortal?"

The mother shocks her head again.

"That would hardly work. In the case of a god or goddess marrying a mortal part of their divinity is entrusted to their partner and there is close to no mortal can endure such a power." The mother explained. "If the mortal can't handle the power he will die by your arms."

The girl was terrified. Why was she born like this? Why couldn't she be born normal?

After a moment of silence, the mother opened her mouth again.

"Miku, you will be going to your father's place." That shocked Miku. She was rarely ever allowed anywhere near her father's place; she did not know why but she was never allowed. "There is the best place for you to be now."

"I understand mama. It will be lonely but I trust you and dad." Miku said vigorously.

After that, they ate, danced, played games and enjoyed the day to the max.

What her mother never said was that epithet-less people are shunned not just because of the fact they can't marry, but because there is a belief that they are bringers of bad luck. If it is true or not is not important, is the fact that people strongly believe that matters, sometimes a believe is many times more important than actual facts.

* * *

Two months later

The place of Miku's father was one of the strongest martial arts sect from the whole Japanese pantheon. It was a place that welcomes the strong and preys on the weak, it was known as earthly god sect.

There, her father was the sect master but the young Miku did not receive any sort of special treatment. Quite the contrary in fact, as she was put under much greater pressure than the others. She had to train her body to the limit, practice martial arts and fight. There was one rule of the sect that you must enter a fight every day, the opponents are at random so you could face someone stronger or weaker than you. Miku was the weakest of them all.

Every day she got a beating in the name of training. She tried to talk to her father but he refused to move and help her as long as it was not life-threatening. 'It builds character' was his opinion. It may seem harsh, but that was how he was raised while growing up to be a God of martial arts.

To make matters worse the treatment of people was dependent on points won in fights but as Miku never won even once she was treated the worst. Nearly spoiled food, no teachers to help her, she needed to sleep with the animals.

What went through her mind at that time was what her mother said to her before she came here, 'your dad said he would look after you'. Why didn't he come to help her? He said he would, so why did he not come to help her when she needs him. The bruised girl from another beating was thinking that while laying down on the ground. Her confidence in her father diminishing at every day that passes.

On the next day, her opponent was decided. It was a boy of around 10 with brown hair, brown eyes and a cute face. They then introduce each other.

"Miku Okami, happy to spar with you."

"Kururugi Suzaku, happy to spar with you."

Miku decided to take the initiative, she went straight to him and delivered a straight punch to the face. He evaded it clearly and went for a low kick that she managed to jump out off, but as a result of her lack in battle experience and strength (she is a 6 years old girl after all) the jump was not far enough so he stretched his hand and caught her foot and with a throw he managed to launch her on the wall. He went to finish the fight but Miku manages to get out of the wall and tackled him.

When he fell on the floor Miku did not wait for him to recompose himself. She straddled him and started to punch him over and over again. She saw in the corner of her eye that his arm was in a position that he could retaliate, but he never did. He just laid there while she punched him.

After a while, the judge came and declared her the winner. She was so happy. She won.

* * *

Later that day

After having her first fulfilling meal in quite a while Miku decided to go for a walk. There was something bugging her since the fight ended. She would need to go see Kururugi-san to ask him about it.

After looking for a while she saw him at the library. She went straight to him.

"Why did you do it?" Miku asked.

"What do you mean?" He asked back pretending to not know what she was talking about.

"Why did you lost on purpose? I saw that you were ready to counter and could have won so, why did you lose on purpose?"

He stayed quiet for a while till he decided to tell her.

"I did what I thought was right. You clearly needed the points more than me."

Miku looked at the ground bashfully seeing his sincere eyes looking straight at her. She trusted him.

"H-h-hey would you be my friend?" She knew the question was too early. She did not know him and neither did he know her but she just wanted someone she could trust here, and he seemed like the best chance she got.

He put a finger under his chin and after a while said.

"Ok."

And like that the first friendship Miku has ever had was born.

* * *

6 years later

Miku was now 12 and had grown beautifully, like a flower blooming. She was not known for her martial prowess but she discovered her talent, she was great at music magic. She learned that from her mother, even sang once for Amaterasu-sama and she said it was quite good.

The only other good aspect of her life was her friendship with Kururugi-kun. He was the only one that cared about her in the sect, her relationship with her absent father was cold, to say the least. But Kururugi was different. He was always by her side during those few years.

She still remembered that time a few months ago

* * *

Miku was going up a small hill with Suzaku. He had invited her there as he said there was a present he made for her. He was 16 now, broad shoulders very physically fit and tall but he still had the same gentleness he had all those years ago.

As they were going up that hill they started talking about whatever came to mind. It did not really matter what but the most important for Miku was to be beside someone she could trust.

"This is what I wanted to show you, Miku-chan." He then made a gesture with his hand as if welcoming royalty, showing Miku a beautiful sight. It was a small forest clearing with many flowers in it, there were some birds there singing happily and a wondrous fragrance permeated the whole space. It was a place straight from a fairy tale. He then took out a small ring made of flowers, kneeled on the ground and faced her direction.

"Miku, would you marry me when you are older?" It was a simple declaration, but the feelings could be felt.

Miku teared up when she heard those words. She still vividly remembered her mother saying that she could never be married unless the male in question had an extremely powerful body to be capable of handling divinity.

"But you know I am an epithet-less. Your body would not be capable of handling divinity."

"Don't you worry. I had it all planned out so it all just comes down to if you want to marry me or not. So… do you accept my proposal?"

She could not hold back her tears anymore. With her face covered in tears of happiness, she said only two words for him.

"I do."

* * *

And now she was the future miss Suzaku. She gets all tingly whenever she thinks of this.

Today was an important day for her. It was the first time she could go out on a mission for the sect. Nothing complicated, just patrol a forest outmost perimeter and check for any irregularities. Her team was her, Kururugi and two other girls she did not really know.

As they started walking through the forest she decided to stay beside Kururugi as she did not like the look those girls were giving to HER man.

After they got on the forest it was all quite boring. They just walked around to see if there was anything dangerous and find some herbs on the side to sell for more points.

CRACK

A sound of a stick breaking was heard. It normally doesn't mean anything but in this forest, it may mean a lot as it is the home of many beasts.

They tensed up and were ready to run as fast as possible… but among all three of them, Miku was the least worried. She still remembers when Kururugi said that he would protect her forever. He never lied to her after all.

From the shadows of the forest a beast appeared. It looked like a lion, but had white hair and was twice the size of a regular one. Seeing the beast everyone knew they could not win as it was easily comparable to someone low high-level. No one there was that level or could fight a beast of that level, especially since true beasts tend to be stronger than their humanoid counterparts, when on the same level.

Suzaku then did the only thing he could think of at that moment, turned around and ran without a second thought. He was accompanied by the girls shortly after, except Miku that was in shock. The shock, however, was not because of the beast, but because her loved one just turned around and ran without even looking at her or caring about her life.

He just abandoned her there so that he could live on.

She suddenly was brought back to reality when she saw that lion jumping at her. Her life flashed through her life, she tried to run but it was too late, she could feel the fangs of the creature entering her skin.

But on that instant when her life was closest to end, a small pendant she received from her mother on the day she was sent to the sect, 'a lucky charm to protect you' as her mother said, teleported her away.

This 'lucky charm' was actually a mystical code made by an ally of the pantheon that, in case the wearer was in risk of dying, would teleport him to anywhere in a 10 kilometers radius.

When Miku could see that she was not going to die she looked around herself. She was deeper in the forest than she should be. Deeper than she could be under any normal circumstances. A dangerous fact, as the deeper you are the stronger the beasts you will find.

But, she was a strong girl. She was going to be the future miss Suzaku so she should not show weakness right now. She must be brave to go back to him, he must be worried for her safety, or so she kept telling herself while forcing the image of him abandoning her out of her mind.

CRASH

BANG

BOOM

Such noises suddenly started going surging on the forest. She knew that she should not go look, but she was a child in the end and her curiosity was strong.

When she approached the source of said sound she could see more and more of what was happening. It was, for as strange as it may be, a child no older than her using a sword fighting a beast three times his size.

But what she was paying attention to the scene was not the fight itself but the sword and the way the boy moved. The sword was sparkling silver, but the closer it was to the base the redder it turned, it was full of decorations and ornate but not to a gaudy level but a tasteful amount. Another thing worthy of notice for Miku was that the boy was moving with great grace, evading all attacks from his enemy as if he could see them coming before they even arrived.

The battle was very intense as the beast was clearly the stronger of the two, but the boy never despaired. He kept his cool while pushing forward. After some time, and many cuts on its body, the beast lost its patience and decided to go and try to bite the boy's head off.

That was the wrong move.

The boy sidestepped and narrowly managed to evade the bite. Taking advantage of the beast exposed neck he used all his strength to hack at the beast's head. He succeeded as the head of the beast drooped and lots of blood started flowing out.

The girl watching this was truly impressed. Being raised in an environment that praises the strong since she was six she liked strong people, and the boy was clearly strong. The beast was just as strong as the one that almost killed her before so, that he managed to beat it, was proof of his power.

She decided to ask for his help. She knew that it was dangerous but if she wanted to get out it was the best option. Taking courage by thinking on the one she loved she stepped ahead to talk to this boy.

"H-h-h-h-hello." She ended up messing up with her presentation. The nervousness did not let her talk properly, and she did not know how to start such talks.

"Hello to you too." The boy answered back.

"W-what is your name?" Miku asked.

At that moment the boy was about to answer but stopped. He thought for a while as he knew he should not be here, (stupid training) was what he was thinking, so giving his true name was a bad idea.

"My name is Cas. And what is yours?"

"Mine is Miku, it is nice meeting you Cas." Miku said trying to be as polite as she could.

"Nice to meet you as well." He said, the turned around and started going deeper in the forest. "Then bye."

Desperation welled up in her. If she was alone here she would most likely die.

"W-wait! Could you help me get out of this forest?" She said. If she wasn't a goddess herself she would be praying to God this instant.

"No way, I still have t-" when the boy was about to deny the girls request the sword liberated a lightning on his arm. "Son of a bitch. Damn sword, why can't you be more like the others?" He then took a deep breath and said, with a REALLY forced smile. "Sure I would love to help you get out of this forest and be thrown at a even crazier training as I will fail this exam. It is just what I wanted." He said with a smile on his mouth, but a glare at his sword in his eyes.

Miku did not understand what was happening exactly, but all that mattered to her was that with this she would go back to the sect and to the one she loves. He must be preoccupied with her and already making a search party.

Then the boy took her by hand till the outside of this forest. He was not happy the whole time but he never let her be even scratched. Even when he faced with many beasts at once, he always did whatever he needed to make sure she was fine.

After they got on the outside the boy was all full of scratches and bleeding but the girl was perfectly fine. It was truly lucky that the boy knew the safest path as he had been in the forest for quite some time, but even so, they took the entire day to get out of the forest.

Thanking Cas profusely the girl turned around and went as fast as possible to the sect.

She wanted to see her beloved more than anything so as soon as she arrived she went to his room, but weird noises were there

*pant**pant**pant

"That is right you bitch in heat. Keep moving those hips. That is the only thing you and all women are good for anyway."

She heard a voice. A voice she knew but refused to believe it was true. It just couldn't be true.

"Cumming, take it all, you WHORE!"

Miku pries the door open just enough to see what was going on.

The man she loved was on the bed with one of the girls that were in the group earlier, both naked.

She was mounting him and they were obviously having sex (she may be young but she was not innocent enough to not understand that much).

He then briskly took her out of him and with a snap of his fingers the other girl came ahead and took his cook in her mouth.

"O~O~O~Oh yes. That is just what I needed after having to deal with that brat during the entire day." He said. "Needing to pretend to care about that failure just to get what I wanted was a royal pain in the ass." He then snickered. "I mean, she is annoying and the way she acts is pathetic in every way, don't you think?"

The woman did not answer as she was too engrossed in his penis. Suzaku did not like that one bit, 'how dare she ignore me', so he took the penis out of her mouth and gave her a slap that thrown her on the wall.

The woman's face got a deep red mark on it and the possibility that she may be truly hurt was there, but she simply went right back to her knees and continued what she was doing. Suzaku then showed a disgusting smile and with a laugh said.

"Ha, those drugs are really good. It took almost no time to make you a sex addict and my slave using it. The only sad part is that I won't be capable of using it on that annoying brat, I even was planning on doing it later today in the forest. Seeing that idiotic failure like you are now, willing to spread her legs to anyone as long as I order would be so funny. Maybe whoring her out would have been good 'pay a dollar for the sect master daughter, cum inside allowed'." He then started laughing imagining that scene. "That would be the perfect catchphrase for that failure."

Miku could not process what was happening. Who was that person? It could not be her Kururugi, he was an honest man. The only one that cared for her in the entire sect. This man, he must be a copy. Someone else. It just couldn't be him. HE WAS NOT HER BELOVED.

"At least I got my reward." Hearing those words Miku turned back to look at the room. "To think that the sect master would be willing to give a golden deity pill to the one that would marry his daughter. To get this pill that can make a mortal capable of handling divinity it was well worth the time spent on conquering her. And it was not even that difficult, I just needed to lose on purpose to that idiot and she went right to me asking me to be 'her friend'… it disgusts me that I needed to act like that all the time I was beside her."He said with a disgusted face. But then he smiled, the same smile that he always had when he talked to Miku, but this time he actually meant it. "At least now she is dead and gone, maybe I will mark it on a calendar as a day to remember, the 'trash cleaning' day."

He continued talking but Miku did not hear what he was saying, she simply shut down and walked automatically back to her place.

No.

It must be lies.

How, how can it be?

Her place was supposed to be beside him. It was the truth.

But now she saw that the 'truth' for what it was.

LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES. LIES.

It was all lies.

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The next day, she left the sect and went back to her mother's home.


	29. Chapter 24-6 Miku's past part 2

It has been a week since that day. The day Miku's world crashed down. around her like shattered glass. How fragile one's perceptions could be, how easy it was to break them. Trust that she has given so readily to him who she believed, crushed under his boots as if nothing.

Ever since, she would see what happened again, what that asshole said behind her back was in her mind as clear as day. Only this time, there was more of him taunting her, mocking her for trusting him in the first place.

And, for each and every taunt and mocking sentence, he said in her mind more and more of her died, a bit at a time.

She barely ate and keeps blaming herself for trusting that jerk. Why did she trust him in the first place? Why did she believe him? Was it her fault for wanting to believe him? Those and other thoughts on that line were spinning on her head over and over.

And the worst part is that she knew why she trusted him. She needed someone in her hour of need. Someone that would be by her side that she could trust, a knight in shining armor.

But it was no knight in shining armor, just a scoundrel lying about being one and a stupid little girl that believed him.

Her mother had no idea what had happened, Miku had refused to explain it when she asked. All she was aware of was that her daughter had gone through something terrible, if the way that she returned all downcast, teary-eyed, and full of self-loathing was any indication.

As a mother, she couldn't help but worry about her little girl. No matter what kind of species they were a mother's instincts for her young were never any different. Thus, she had tried her best to help lift her daughter's spirits in any way possible.

She made her favorite foods, tried to play games and everything she could think of. She would barely respond to any of them, her eyes refusing to become brighter through her efforts. She had even tried prompting her to talk about what had happened, in subtle ways of course, but none of them worked on her. She even tried to talk to her husband, but he followed the rules of the sect too firmly (not give special treatment to anyone) and because of that, he was just as clueless as her.

The only thing that worked even a bit was singing.

Whenever she would sing to her daughter, she would gain a briefly brighter outlook in her eyes. They would gain a slightly lighter tone to them, as if she had been an overflowing ball of water which now had finally formed a small outlet, stabilizing itself.

Realizing that music is the only thing that was animating Miku she decided to use it. She sang for Miku and asked Miku to sing for her.

Little by little, one step at a time, Miku was coming back to normal. It was a slow process, months to make her back to normal. Except she never did come back to what she was before that night.

For one her love for music was much stronger now, ingrained in her very soul

And for the other was her mistrustfulness of most men and hate for liars. Never to forgive a liar.

* * *

One year later

Miku has been on her Mother's home since then. Her life though, had changed drastically. Some would say for the worse, while others would say for the better, depending on who you ask.

She now barely interacted with the outside world or anyone in it. She didn't want to, not when she had gone through all that trouble back at the sect. But on the other hand, she enjoyed her time at home more and more.

But it was not like she stayed the exact same way as one year ago. She dedicated herself to her music magic, putting a lot of effort in improving it by leaps and bounds. She trained in it like there was nothing else in the world to do, and for her, that was indeed the case. She was capable of boosting, healing, making shields, and attacking, even though her attacking powers were considerably week.

The most important change, however, was her desire to be an idol.

When she saw in a show she went with her mother an idol named Misa Misa dancing and singing, the audience applauding and all the happiness that Misa was emanating, Miku's mind could only think that she wanted to be like that too.

The joy of singing, combined with the love and adoration of a crowd of people... an Idol's life sounded like the complete opposite of what she had. A life where everyone loved her, cared for her loved her… that was the opposite of her life where everyone who was not her mother and VERY FEW others hated and scorned her. She wanted to be appreciated, to be admired, to have people listening and liking her. She wanted to be loved in some form.

When she realized that, in that very moment, her goal changed. If she could not find someone to love her as a woman she would be loved as an idol.

And so she trained, trained hard in order to get that happiness. She practiced dancing, singing, how to interact and everything else she could think off. It wasn't as easy as it looked, either.

For one, she had to practice how to smile in front of a crowd, by doing pushups while retaining a perfect smile. Most of the time she failed, as her smile would occasionally twitch, ruining the image she had been going for. Other exercises included smiling while she thought about how much she had gone through in her life. If she were to do that, then she could smile no matter what happens or how she feels.

Dancing was another great hurdle to jump across, and that one was just as hard. She had to get the movements, the sequences, just right otherwise the whole performance would fail. She failed many times, but the thought of others loving her made her continue, all for that genuine feeling of love she would receive from others.

She would succeed at this, she had to. She would not fail, she was not a failure. That was what she told herself every time she thought about giving up. It was almost like a mantra, to her.

It was the best she could do to forget. Forget the looks of pity and ridicule from some of those who knew what she was; forget how others treated her as an outcast in her mother's home for being born different; forget the painful days on the sect; forget about her former love.

She even started writing some songs herself. It was songs about her feelings, about what resonates with her very soul. Her favorite ones were 'Heavenly Blue' and 'please give me wings', those were the songs that resonated with her the most. The desires to be free and to be heard.

One day her mother even came to talk with her.

"My dear, isn't you pushing yourself too much? You have been practicing for the last 14 hours, you need to rest." Her mother said worriedly.

"No mother, I need this. I need to be an idol."

"But why? If it is just to sing and enjoy yourself why not stay here where you can have everything you may desire?"

"Because I want to sing for all to hear. I want people to hear my voice and admire me, to get animated with me, to be happy with me" 'to someone truly love me' those final words did not get out of her mouth.

Even now, deep down, months after she left the sect and her old life behind she still wanted to find someone to truly like her, and maybe, just maybe, her songs coming from her heart would allow for that.

And then, after months training, she decided to go ahead. She found an idol amateur contest and signed in.

It was terrifying. The judges were looking at her the entire time judging (mind the pun) with serious faces. She did not know if she pleased them or not but she just kept singing with all her heart and dancing the best she could.

All the while singing one of her personal songs.

After the song ended two of the judges were not certain that they wanted her in or not but the final one, Mr. Diethard Reid said she got the talent for it. And so she began her idol career.

After that first phase, she kept winning all others. It was like she was in heaven when she won the tournament. The one that supported her during this entire tournament was Diethard, the judge that approved of her.

After the contest was over she was called by Diethard.

"You are Miku, correct?"

"Y-yes, sir. My name is Miku. Thank you very much for all the help you have given me during the contest."

He then gave her a gentle smile and said.

"No need to worry, I just did what was right. You are clearly talented and have a bright future in this field." He then gave her a serious stare and said. "I called you here now to ask you something, would you be willing to be produced by me?

Miku did not know what to say. She knew the history of Mr. Diethard, he was the producer of many popular idols before and if she worked with him her chances would be much higher.

"I-I don't know what to say, Sir. It is just so sudden."

"No need to worry. I worked with many idols before and I promise you to take you to the top of the industry."

Miku was overcome with happiness at that instant. It was her chance, her chance of something better. A promising future full of light and hope.

She agreed to work with him, trusting him on this.

* * *

A month later

Miku was sprayed on the floor exhausted. She had been practicing everything her new dance instructor told her to do. No mistakes were allowed as she needed to train until she got to perfection.

She also started singing songs written by a professional in the field. Her manager said those would sell better instead of the ones she spent hours thinking and writing.

But it was all worth it as she had her first show…ish. She made some videos on YouTube so as to create a fan base. She wanted to make true shows from the start, no matter how small they might be or if they would make that much success or not, but the producer decided that it was not a good idea.

She obeyed.

And things were looking good. She was starting to make success and even got a true show on the horizon to think about. Even a CD was in the making.

Then her chance of an actual show came along. It was a small show, just a few hundred people were there as it was a special event of some anime or something. It did not matter to Miku. With this, she would be capable of experiencing what Misa Misa must have felt, that freedom and happiness that she exuded on the stage. All that love.

On the show itself she decided that she wanted to impress so she chooses her favorite clothes, a pretty dress that allowed liberty of movements and, despite not showing much skin, still was beautiful in her. However, when she was about to enter the stage

"No. Those clothes are no good." The producer said when he looked at what clothes she had chosen. "Those are not the best option. For you to make success you got to use these."

The clothing was terrible in her opinion. It barely covered anything, as the material was mostly transparent. The skirt was short and the color was red, a color she hated since THAT person used it the most.

But the producer said that it was the best option. He was right, she trusted him.

And so she sang. With dancing that was chosen for her, with clothes chosen for her and with songs that she did not like.

At the start, the public was not getting animated with her show. She tried to sing the best she could but the ones present were all looking at their phone or talking among themselves. No one was paying true attention to her.

She kept purring her soul on the songs. Trying the best she could. No one there really cared.

No one cared.

She was getting desperate. It was her chance. Her only chance. And she makes a wish while starting a new song.

 **I wish everyone will like it!**

It happened as she wished. Different from before the people hearing what she sang started paying attention to her. They looked at her and were getting animated with her performance.

She had done it!

She managed to make people happy with her music!

But,

But why?

Why is it that she is feeling empty?

* * *

After that successful show, everything started progressing wonderfully.

And now she is recording her first album.

She sang the best she could.

She put her whole soul on the music. She was feeling proud of herself as she managed to transmit her full emotions in the song.

When she finished the producer looked at her and looked really irritated.

"Why won't you go at it seriously!?" He screamed at her with his full strength. "You should do it like on that show a few days ago. It was amazing, the audience enjoyed and all… but this? This that you did just now is shit! Do it again, and do it right this time."

Miku was depressed hearing that. Hearing that the music she purred her full emotions were being called 'shit' by the producer.

She went back inside to re-start singing. She did the only thing she could think of that was different from before, she wished.

 **I wish everyone will like it.**

And with that, she sang. This time they enjoyed the music, but she did not.

And so six months passed.

Her career decollated. She was called in interviews, her album was a success and her shows were always full of happiness and excitement.

She did not feel anything about most of this.

She discovered after experimenting for some time that her 'wish' was no true wish. It was actually an unconscious hypnotic spell that mixed with her music.

It was all a lie.

But, on the bright side, the manager was supporting her with everything he had.

Today as well, she was going to train while he was going to see a possible sponsor.

"Ok, Miku-chan. Let's do it again, from the start." Her dance instructor said, much more amicably that in the past. In the past he usually was too touchy, moving his disgusting hands over her body with the excuse of training. Now, after she said to him **treat me with respect and care, no desire** he did just that.

It was just so easy.

Seeing this she started doing it on a lot of people. Anything she wanted, she would get. No more dirty looks at her 15 years old body or anything of the sort.

Everyone just listened to whatever she said.

The director was the only one she never ordered. He always wanted what was good for her after all.

* * *

"Miku, I have an important request for you today." Diethard said with his arms crossed. He had a focused face while looking at her as if the mater that he would be telling her was of extreme importance.

GULP

"What is it you need me, producer?" Miku said trying to sound calm. This was one of the few times he ever had this face and whenever he had it, it was a serious matter.

"I need you to go to a special event. It will be for you to entertain the sponsors and possibly get a few more. Remember, you are to do as they say. If it goes well your career will reach greater heights, nationwide scale; but if you mess this up your career is as good as finished."

She started to tremble. she had heard of some of this 'parties to entertain' before, and they are NOT something she ever wanted anything to do with. However, the one indicating her to go is the producer, he had supported her through this entire time and brought her to this new stage in life.

A stage where there are no more Kururugi's to deal with.

'I can trust him.' 'He would never hurt me.' was what she kept telling herself.

"I understand. If it is just to entertain some sponsors, I will do it."

Afterward, Miku was taken to the meeting point, a refined hotel on downtown.

Entering the room, she saw many men walking around with woman barely dressed in their arms. It w-w-was fine. The producer wouldn't have sent her to somewhere bad for her.

He said she could trust him.

One of the men approached her. He had a big belly and smelled like concentrated perfume, sweet and cigarettes.

"Are you Miku-cham? So the entertainment of our little party has finally arrived." He said jovially. He then turned to the side to ask a waitress "Hey, bring our special drink for the star of tonight." He said to the waitress who simply bowed her head to him and obeyed.

A minute later the waitress came along carrying a cup full to the brim with a colorful drink.

"You do know I am a minor, right?" She asked looking with some misgivings to the drink served to her.

The fat man said.

"No worries, that is a non-alcoholic drink. It is just for you to _relax_ a bit. Now drink it up, your show will be next."

She was not confident in the words of that man, but the producer said she should not mess this up. She drank it up in one gulp, it tasted like berries and something more.

Afterward, she was taken to a backstage to get ready to sing on that stage.

While taking care of her make-up (not that she needed any as she was naturally beautiful) she started talking to the mirror, trying to get herself together.

"Miku, remember. You are doing this to reach that happiness, this is your chance. Don't mess this up." She then stood up and went to the stage.

She started to sing and everything was normal, until-

Someone throw money at her.

"STRIP!"

The man in question that did this was the same fat one, he was looking between a clock and her body during most of the show. His smile was a perverted type as if he was looking at nothing more than a piece of meat.

After he threw the money and said those words the other man in the room started laughing evilly and started throwing money as well and saying those exact same words.

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

"STRIP!"

And such shouts were happening all around her.

She was scared and ran back to the back-stage. Some of the security tried to stop her, force her to go back on that stage. She simply said, " **Let me go.** " and they obeyed.

When she went back on the back-stage she started looking for her purse to get away from here (her cellphone was in the purse after all).

"And where do you think you are going?"

The same fat bastard that she met before appeared before her again. His smell managed to be even more disgusting now that some of the excessive perfume stopped working and some of his bodily odor came into play.

"I am leaving. I am NOT one of those girls." As she was about to leave the room she suddenly felt a bit dizzy.

Seeing her losing some of her balance the man seemed to have figured something out.

"So the effect in you is slower. No matter, come here." And with that, that man took her in a moment where she was defenseless and took her first kiss.

It terrified and disgusted her to no end.

That he would put that filthy mouth on her, move his hand all over her body, take her as no more than a thing.

Then he decided to put one of those pawns of his into her dress to touch her breasts directly. The feelings of pure hate overwhelmed her to a point that her energy flowed faster and faster in her body, making her capable of liberating herself to whatever was making her this week.

She then managed to push him away from her, throwing him into the wall.

"H-How? How can you even be conscious enough to act against me after you have taken it?" He asked between his grunts of pain.

"'How?' is not important. What I want to know is what had you done?"

"…" He refused to answer, probably taking his time till help arrived.

" **Answer my questions**. What did you do to make me this week?"

"I spiked the drink I gave you before. The drug had a hypnotic and weakening effect, as long as the dosage was right you would listen to anything we say to you and be too weak to retaliate when your consciousness returned." He explained his and the other men on the room plan, a terrible and awful plan, in a mechanic and empty voice.

It was as she feared. It was a trap she had fallen, one to make her a plaything for others.

Wait a second.

That- Could that mean…

"Did my producer knew about the plan?" Miku asked while praying. Praying with all her strength for the answer to be no. That he did not know, that he was cheated, that he cared for her.

"Yes, he knew everything." And then the fat man continued. "It was not the first time he sent us a 'gift' anyway. He always sent us any girl that was just not that great so as to better fund the next one. His words were 'they are stepping stones for the one that will truly shine'."

Lies, it was all lies. This man is lying, Diethard would not do this.

Holding her desperation and trying to recompose herself Miku ordered the man to make some excuse or whatever as to why she is leaving right that instant.

After getting out of that place she called a taxi and tried to organize her thoughts. Ignore that that pig stole her first kiss and focus on finding where Diethard is that very instant.

She needed to know the truth.

But at the same time

She feared what the truth would be.

* * *

Getting on the agency where she believed that Diethard was she went straight to his room.

Fortunately, he was there.

She did not knock or anything of the sort, she just pushed the door by force.

"Producer, what was the meaning of that? How could you sent me to somewhere like that?" Miku asked with overwhelming anger laced in her tongue like flames abut to burn whoever made her feel like this.

"I don't know wh-"

" **DON'T LIE TO ME!** " Miku screamed at the top of her lungs making all the windows on the room break.

Diethard hearing this got a dazed and empty look on his face as if he could not feel anything.

"I did nothing except follow the usual plan." He answered.

"Explain this 'plan' of yours. As many details as possible." She ordered the man, the last man she trusted.

"Whenever I find a girl that got some amount of talent, no matter how small, I try to see if I can polish her to be a true treasure. To be something that can really touch the soul of this industry and let her name in history. I saw the beginning of that flame in you, but you were not good enough. Even if you sold well you were not a true idol in the heart. You are trash, so I did as usual and disposed of it in a recyclable way. By selling you to those men as a sex slave I could get my money back to invest in the next project. One that hopefully would not be a failure like you." He said all this, the truth for him in an absolute honest fashion.

It took all of Miku's willpower to not show her despair on the outside. It had happened again, she trusted a man that was trying to use her to his own ends. Another lier.

It was always like that.

Why was it always like that?

Why couldn't she get some happiness to herself?

Was meeting one truthful person asking too much?

And, with these thoughts swimming on her mind, she did the only thing she could think off at that time.

She went straight to the recording room, to sing a song. One of her songs. To liberate her feellings, like she did in a not so distant past, even if it felt like decades for her.

And so she sang.

Put her entire soul and everything on those few songs she made herself. And decided to post it on the internet.

Maybe she could find someone online that would like her songs that no one else does.

Maybe someone out there could still appreciate her for herse-

"Wha, how lame. LoL"

That was the first answer to her music.

"Desperate girl found, I bet she is easy"

"How can someone post a song like that online. It made my day more depressing, stop posting this kind of things online. BITCH"

"BITCH"

"ATTENTION-WHORE"

"EASY GIRL"

"Terrible voice, go find someone better to do it for you"

"The lyrics are terrible; you are awful"

"BITCH"

"Desperate for attention"

"Needs to be banged"

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Those and other messages alike was all she got as an answer for her whole soul.

With this, she broke.

There was no one that she could trust.

There was no one out there that would like her.

There was no hope for her.

 _So why not make one yourself_

When she was about to fully give up she had that thought. She decided to try it out, one last time.

So she decided to take one normal song. It was nothing exceptional and absolutely ordinary, the kind you forget in minutes after hearing. An empty song.

And so she sang one last time. She did not bother to put any true emotion on the song, after all, if the world was not honest and truthful why should she be.

But she did use her magic.

She pumped a lot of energy in one message to be put on that song, **this song is amazing, the best you ever heard.** And like that she posted the empty song full of nothing but a lie.

"Amazing"

"Diva"

"Perfection"

"The best song ever"

"Best music I ever heard"

"Goddess"

"Most wonderful voice I ever heard"

"DIVA"

"DIVA"

"DIVA"

Ha

Ha ha

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ha

It is so simple.

Why didn't she realized this early?

If the world is dishonest why should she be honest?

If people are traitorous by nature she just needs to take control of them?

No matter what happens she would be victorious as long as she did not trust anyone.

Never to trust another promise.

Never to trust another person.

Never to trust.

And with this resolve Miku smiled, the same smile she practiced so much for so long to be an idol.

The smile that used to be to bring people happiness, now reduced to just a mask.

But.

Just for that instant.

The mask was leaking through the eyes.


	30. Chapter 25

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, that happened.

After that fat 'priest/crazy bastard' retreated Miku got much more silent.

Normally she would keep berating me as if I personally offended her, but now she just keeps her distance.

It is almost as if she is more afraid of me than the people trying to kill her.

But at this moment her reaction to me is not that important. What is important is to think about what we should be doing.

I took advantage that she was at a meeting to first and foremost, summon my familiars, except Jirachi as he is too conspicuous.

"Eevee, Cosmoems come forth." And with this shout, the tree came out of a magic circle.

Eevee was jumping in my direction as soon as he discovered where I am, he always was the one the most affection among my familiars. He jumped into my arms and started licking my face as much as possible.

Imagine a small furball that jumps into your arms and starts to show how much it loves you with big doe eyes looking like he wants to be like this as long as possible and missed you. Yep, he is just criminally cute.

The two Cosmoems were much more quiet on the other hand, they just floated to my side and started rubbing on my back. They never had much in the way of how to show emotions, but as they are naturally psychic they can transfer happy emotions to me.

I always loved my familiars because of this sort of moments, it is not just because they are strong, which they are, but because of how they act. They are companions that are always there for me no matter what.

I decided to take things seriously now that I finished showing them how I feel. I turned to Eevee and said.

"Eevee can you turn into shadow mode and go into Miku's shadow? I need you to help protect her if I am to be separated with her for some reason." I said with a gentle but firm tone.

Eevee nodded affirmatively and the black jewel on his neck shinned. He turned sleeker and all his usual brown fur turned black and very short with golden rings on his thighs, forehead, ear tips, and tail. His tail and ears also got a different format, turning pointy like spikes. His eyes turned from his usual brown to blood red.

"Umbreon!" And then the dark mode of Eevee, also called Umbreon, jumped on Miku's shadows when she was not looking.

His abilities are centered in three skills he can use. One is his **shadow** **stalk** where he can dissolve himself in the shadow of others; another one is **barrier** where he makes a barrier around himself in a 2 meters' radius; and the final one is **moon** **blast** where he launches a concentrated beam of concentrated moonlight at someone, imagine a beam of light reaching a few thousand degrees that lack the holy element. Very useful against those who believe that light attacks are holly and decided to focus their protection against holy energy. Killed some magicians that were too full of themselves with this small trick.

I decided to not tell Miku of this because she could react negatively to my decision. She could say that I am not going to protect her myself or that I am trying to spy on her changing clothes or something (which I would never do, part because I am not Issei and part because if Sakura finds out I did something like that… not a happy future would await me).

Umbreon then went to a shadow beside the wall where the door was, this way as soon as she leaves the room he will transfer to her shadow.

"Cosmoems, do your thing." After I said that the two space orbs used one of its few abilities **Minimize** to, well, minimize. They both became the size of earrings and glued to my ears as such to look like jewelry.

It is not really my style to use jewels, but this way the enemies will not know that the two earrings I have are actually my familiars and that they have their own skills to help me out.

Miku finally ended the reunion and was ready to leave and go home. She canceled most of her schedule by my request. Surprisingly enough she did not fight much against it when I explained that having her moving like that would make protecting her difficult. Too many blind spots and opportunities for ambush.

After getting on the apartment I decided to go wait outside, as she had shown many times that she did not like my presence.

"Where do you think you are going?" She said coldly as soon as I opened the door to let her alone.

"You had shown yesterday that you did not want me near you when in this room after I complimented you, so I thought you preferred that I wait outside." I explained.

"I see, so that is how you intend to keep your promise." She had a small smile on her face when she said that. "'as long as you are on my side I will protect you with everything I have', so if you leave my side because I said so before you can leave me unprotected and if something happens it will not be your fault. You are just as bad in the end." She said with a smile on her face.

It is the same smile she has most of the time she is around her fans.

I do not like that smile. It may be just my instinct with females (I mean seriously any guy living with many girls that are scary as fuck would develop it), but they are screaming at me that this smile is not good.

If it is for me or for someone else I don't know, but I don't want to see it regardless.

"You want me to stay? Fine." I then went to the couch and sit there. Took out my homework (Sona sends me daily doses, her stance is 'no matter where a student is he must follow the protocol') and started making it. Not the most exciting thing to do, but necessary nonetheless.

As I started doing my homework Miku was reading a magazine about fashion. She looks pissed with something (probably me) and seems to want to talk. It is contradictory but so is being young and most girls anyway (it may sound sexist but it is a truth that most 17 years old girls are contradictory sometimes).

"What?" I asked after the fourth time she sneaked a peak in my direction.

"Nothing. I just want to ask something." She said.

"*sigh* If you want to ask me something then ask already." I said tiredly. Dealing with this sort of situations is really tiring, I mean she wants to talk but does not want to. Acts like she wants me to go away but wants me close at the same time. She says I am lying but seem to want to believe me at the same time.

What is wrong with this girl?

"Why are you doing this? Protecting me at the possible cost of your life, why do you do it?" She asked me with a serious face, but I can see on her eyes some insecurity.

"Because it is my mission" She seems to deflate a bit at that, her shoulders drooped but she showed that same smile from before. "And because I want to." I explained to her.

That gave her a shock if her eyes widening a bit was any indicator. But the shock quickly ended as that smile returned.

"So you just feel like it huh. It must be because I am pretty and you want to do 'things' to me later. Or you want something from me. Well, whatever it may be as long as you protect me is enough." She said in an even tone as if commenting on the weather.

A tick mark must be on my forehead now as this last comment is making me pissed off.

"Would you not act as if I am trying to take advantage of you. I said it before and will repeat it, I am protecting you because it is my mission and because I want to. Simple as that." I said with an irritated voice.

"Liar. There is no way that it is the truth. What do you want, divinity energy? Or maybe sell me later for experimentation? Maybe the payment to protect me is just that good, or maybe you want my bod-"

"Would you shut up." I said making her mute at that instant. "I do not care one fucking bit about what you believe or what you think, but I will tell you once again. I am doing this because this is my job AND because I want to. So shut your mouth and accept my help already." I said.

She had the same smile on her face while she doesn't move a single muscle for a whole minute. Then she simply lay down on her bed again and keeps reading her magazine.

"Liar." Was the last word she told me then.

* * *

After about half an hour I decided to inform in more details to the rest of the team about what happened with that fat priest and my decision.

"We need reinforcements." Was what I told them. Most look fine with that, I mean if it was just a few enemies it would be manageable but right now it is way too just too few of us here.

The only one that looks annoyed at my suggestion was Kanda, but he is always mad and annoyed so he doesn't count.

Right now there are exorcists that turn into monsters; possibly a drug that, according to Okuyasu, raises the amount of holy power someone can launch at once; soulless soldiers that are not afraid of dying; possible more fallen angels under Kokabiel; and last, but not least, Serenity, Lugh and that Big guy that shoots thunder.

There are just too many variables right now so a help is more than welcome. Not asking for help when you can and need is stupid.

I then made the call for reinforcements.

"Rin-sensei, we got a situation." I started like that when I called her.

"*sigh* What did you do this time? The mission was supposed to be simple enough so how did you screw this up?" She said tiredly. She was used to me calling her just when the situation was quite dire.

"The Iscariot's are after Miku."

"WHAT?" She screamed on the phone. She knew them and knew that they were a serious problem.

"And they seem to have Kokabiel help."

"HOW CAN YOU GET YOURSELF IN THIS SORT OF SITUATIONS EVEN IN SIMPLE MISSIONS!?" She asked still screaming. "Is it the fault of your father genes? It must be an inherited characteristic." She then took a deep breath and asked. "Was that all the problem you found?"

"*GULP* There are also three powerful enemies here, one being… Lugh."

For a moment Rin was quiet. Not a single sound the sound came back

"THAT LITTLE BITCH IS THERE?" She screamed even louder somehow. If I was not reinforcing my ears to make them more resistant I would be deaf by now. "I will send you an extermination squad so you do what must be done, but bring her back what she stole from me. Understood?" The malice on that last word was enough to make devils cower, I would know as she used the same tone with Lucifer once and he trembled a bit under that tone out of sheer instinct.

"Sir, yes sir!" I answered.

I would like to think that I was not shaking like a leaf but it would be a lie.

Now I just need to wait for the reinforcements to arrive.

Miku was beside me the whole time I was talking with Rin, and it was irritating that her first true smile that she showed the whole day was of amusement for my reactions. If anyone else was in my place you'd be shitting themselves to.

* * *

Hideout of the enemies

3° person P.O.V.

It has been a few hours since the fat man arrived to help with his entourage. It should have been a welcome reinforcement as he arrived with more than 30 modified exorcists and about 50 'special weapons', but when you consider his attitude…

"How can this great me be here in such a dirty place is beyond me. If Maxwell did not ask me to come, I would never even think about putting my precious feet in this dirty land and breath the same air as such lowly creatures such as yourselves." That last bit was looking at the ones he was sent to 'help'. It was visible that he was a self-entitled asshole. But afterward, his eyes changed from disgust to something else, not an improvement. "At least you guys seem to have interesting bodies. Wouldn't you be interested in being my next experiments? I promise one meal every three days and body modification treatments just once every few hours, it is VIP treatment. So who would like to accept this chance of helping me advance SCIENCE!?" His eyes were now filled with the purest madness that seemed to see everyone else as lab rats (Writer's note: imagine the mid-point between Mayuri from bleach and Nazis' scientist, he is that much of a crazy bastard).

Seeing his personality and way of acting three of the individuals there lost their interest. Bolic went back to munching a lollipop of strawberry flavor, Lugh went back to appreciating her collection of treasures and Serenity simply stayed in her corner, far from everyone else.

"While I have no doubt the results would be more than interesting" The one to answer him was the leader of the mission, his robes were in pristine fashion as always and he talked with such a gentle tone that anyone that did not know the man would think him to be a good person. "what matters now is not the advancement of science but the mission to be completed. You understand this don't you, Doctor Blank."

The now named Doctor Blank was obviously not pleased by this but he understood where it was coming from.

"Fine, but can I make a small request?" The 'good' doctor said.

"Ask away." Was the answer that came from the priest.

"Would it be possible to give me the corpse of that girl and the others after we kill them? They would make incredible materials." He said with almost drool dripping from his mouth, he was just excited by the mere thought of what he could do with those bodies. The new weapons he could create for the 'greater good'.

"That will depend on how things turn out, but I see no problem with this request. Although, wasn't it you that gave most of them a way out earlier today?" the priest said in mild amusement.

"That was just to measure their responses. If they accepted we would just block teleportation and plant some bombs in their transportation to get out, I believe 50 kilograms of C4 should make some damage and it would be easier this way as we would most likely kill some of them without any real expense. For us, C4 is cheap after all." The Doctor explained.

"But how would you know in what way they would be leaving town?" The priest asked. He was always interested in understanding the way his colleges thought and to see if he could help in any way. He was a 'good Christian' and 'helping the others' was part of that.

"Oh, that wouldn't be hard, we just need to put C4 in the plains leaving town and all trains and roads to make sure. They would be in some of them so it just might work." Was the answer that the 'good doctor' said, no different than someone reading a boring book out loud.

Everyone in the room shivered a bit hearing of this plan. The civilians would get involved and the damage would be absurdly high, but if the end result would be favorable in the end for the Iscariot Organization anyway. For them, the civilians would simply be going to meet God first, sent by their rightful envoys at that.

Such 'honor' is hard to come by. They would surely be grateful on the afterlife, or so the priests and exorcists believed.

The priest smile got even a bit wider hearing this, humming a happy tune at the prospect. 'Working with real 'men of God' was truly so much better', such was his thinking at hearing that plan.

"Good thinking. Exceptional even, you truly are a man with a mind blessed by our great God." He then looked at the others in the room and asked. "What did you bring to this mission exactly, dear Doctor?"

"Ahh, good that you asked. These here," he pointed to all the fifty men with empty eyes. "are fifty processed machines, they each have the magic energy of a high mid-class individual. While it is true that they can't really make complex magic or anything of the sort but using them as meat shields or heavy magic-artillery is completely possible, really well made and sturdy as I replaced some of their bones with carbon fiber." The doctor was clearly happy with these… 'beings' that once were human that he transformed.

"Magnificent. Truly great additions to this mission. And the humans beside you?" The priest asked, clearly treating those modified beings as un-human anymore as he knew that they were no more than empty shells at this point.

"These here are the work of my brother, Shu." When he mentioned his brother there was a mix of respect and hate in his tone. It was clear that their relationship must not be that harmonious, and if it was competitiveness or envy was anyone's guess. "They were modified to be capable of getting transformed into especial lifeforms, each with different characteristic. But the most special are these three right here" He pointed to three of them that had a skin yellow almost golden and seemed to be almost unable to think anymore. They still counted as humans because their souls were still normal, but the body was clearly a different story. "These three are a squad of their own, always must be kept together and could reduce almost any enemies to nothing in instants. They came just as a 'test drive' of sorts as we want to see these models in action." The fat doctor explained. His excitement about these modified exorcists was clearly much less than the modified humans from before due to the humans being his project and the exorcists being his brother's.

"Good, good, really good reinforcements. Now I need to ask, but and the fallen? Will those insults to our supreme God come as the allies they are supposed to be?" The priest asked. The Iscariots and Kokabiel may be on an alliance but there is no love there. Not even deep bonds just one using the other when it is convenient.

"No, they won't be coming." The doctor said like he was telling about the weather or some other unimportant thing. For him, the fallen are nothing when compared to his creations after all. "They said they will be busy due to some mission to do with the fragments."

"Humph, useless as expected. We really cannot trust those who betrayed God." The priest said, ignoring the people in the room that had their souls destroyed by his organization.

And then the two monsters in religious clothing kept talking about more of their plans. On the side Serenity was looking at all of this and had only one thing on her mind:

'Just one more mission, then I will go back to being myself. Castiel, as the only one that could survive me, I will make sure to destroy your body after the fight. It is best than ending in the hands of these monsters'.

If it was not for her mask and years learning how to hide her emotions she would have shown her disgust. For the aberrations that were these monster, for the priest, for the doctor and especially for herself for getting used to this.

* * *

At night

Castiel P.O.V.

We are bored. No other way about it, waiting for the enemy to attack is boring as all hells put together (and I do mean including the nobility party's that I sometimes have to attend, those are just awful).

At least something will happen now. I reunited everyone in the room so as to welcome our reinforcements. Seryu is hanging by my side locking arms with me (she said she just wanted to do it for no reason, but as Yuno could come as reinforcement I doubt Seryu reason was anything less than gloating), the Sister is eating some chips in a chair, Kanda simply is looking at a distance, Emily is eating ice cream (that she bought with my money when she beat me on a bet… I am probably the only person that Lancer could beat on a luck contest, huh), Okuyasu is looking nervously to see who will come (he is conflicted between wanting to see Asia and wanting her to be as far away from here as possible) and Miku, well, she is just staring at me from a distance.

She has been doing that a lot since her panic attack.

Suddenly a magic circle appeared on the floor, a teleportation circle connected and from it, some people came out.

The first is a girl of approximately 14 years old. She had shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes, her attire consisting of a sorceress-like dress with a huge red hat (she used to use blue but she doesn't dare to use it anymore) with a black bow, yellow stars, and a matching cape.

"It has been too long, Castiel-sama, Emily-sama, Sister-sama. And nice to meet you all as well." The girl said turning her eyes to the other members in the room. "My name is LeFay Pendragon, the disciple of Rin-sama." LeFay said giving an almost 90 degrees bow to everyone in the room. She is what could only be called overly educated.

The next one to go through teleportation was a Nekoshou. She had an extremely well-developed body (even if slightly less than Miku) with long black hair split in bangs and hazel-gold eyes with cat-like pupils. She also had two cat ears, two black tails and a black kimono with a yellow obi that she manages to position in a way to show as much of her chest and legs without showing the critical areas.

"We came to help, Nyaa~. Hope we are not late." Kuroka said entering the room. She then looked at me and gave a smile. "Thank you for giving me the chance to do something to Shirone, Cas-kun Nyaa~. If I had not had a mate I would consider you just because of it, Nyaa~." She said that with a flirtatious wink to me. Seryu was growling at that (she may be spending too much time with Koro).

The final one was a man that I knew well enough.

"It has not been long, my friend." That were the first words of my old friend, Arthur Pendragon.

"Yeah, it is good to see you again too." I said with a smile, but then a question appeared on my mind. "But if you are here, who is taking care of Yuto's training?" I asked.

His answer was a smile and saying ho is now responsible for him and that everything is in order, no need to worry about that.

… I suddenly feel like praying for the poor bastard soul, if my guess is right he might need it.

At least now the team is complete, tomorrow will be the showdown between the two sides.

Now we just need to see what will happen next.

* * *

 _Omake_

 _Kiba's personal hell_

This must be what they imagined in the bible as hell.

"Try harder. Your movements are too wasteful, do it again."

"But Sensei, these weights on my arms are too much. I can barely move." I said to my teacher.

"Not my problem. I just want to see if I can groom you as a worthy foe, but as you are you are now you are far from enough. Again, do it till **I** feel tired." Was the answer of his new teacher. This teacher did not care about anything except his sword, reaching the apex (which for Kiba he must already be) and…

"Assassin darling, when are you coming back? The next raid will start soon and I need my gallant protector to help me." His girlfriend.

"I am coming Vert dear, just one more minute." Assassin then turned to me and said. "Keep doing this set of movements till I come back. It will probably take just one or two days. Remember, no slacking or the room will warn me. If you get in the way of my time with my dear I will show you how Tsubane Gaeshi can hurt even with a wooden sword." Assassin said with considerable killing intent.

He then turned back and went to play 4goddesses online. He was turned into a professional gamer due to the game thanks to the nagging of his girlfriend, Vert the youngest daughter of Odim. The one caring title of Gaming Goddess.

Apparently, he was the number one sword guardian in the whole game, specialized in guarding fixed spots. In his own words, 'I want to leave a mark and fight the best in all forms'.

And so Kiba stayed on the room, alone, repeating the same set of movements over and over again. He was using a Rock Lee, from Naruto, style weights to help his training on getting more strength. But, what he could not understand was why?

Why did he need to wear green spandex and use a bow cut wig to match?

Just WHY?

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I just wanted to say that it aways annoyed me a bit how everything in this sort of history seems to work only with magic. This is on a real world and as such tecnology and normal ways of warfare are alse quite real.**

 **Iscariot's on this story are a organization that doesn't care at all about civil casualities, they even like it. As such, using something like C4 and other such things is not impossible at all.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this mass release, I probably will take a bit longer to post more as I am quite busy in RL but it will at most be a weak so don't worry, this story still has a lot ahead of it.**


	31. Chapter 26

**Writer's note:**

 **I am glad that the last chapter pleased you guys. And about the timeline, if you look carefully you will see that there is no problem with it.**

 **Also, to answer the RamdonGuest1 question of why LeFay is so polite, well it is her nature and even Rin can be pleasing when she wants. And about the question of why she changed to using red instead of blue you guys just need to think, who else in the Tower uses blue and fights Rin on sight?**

 **That is the answer.**

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Now it is night time. After the others arrived we explained the situation in details to them.

Things did not change much in the formation in case of attack, just that Arthur and Kuroka will be focusing on the exorcists as they can deal with them (even if they transform like that one I face and have absurd healing factor these two could deal with them no problem). LeFay, on the other hand, will go help Emily and Kanda in their fight against Lugh.

Lugh is too crafty and has many treasures. Kanda and Emily may be strong but they may lack in their means to deal with an ever-changing battlefield. LeFay is an amazing magician that could help cover that bridge.

Now that we discussed most of the plans we went to sleep, in turns obviously as who knows when the enemy may try to attack us.

I ended up sleeping on the couch of Miku's room this time around… I really need to get one of this couches to my room back on my apartment.

She did not make much of a fuss over me sleeping here this time around, but she kept giving me critical gazes every now and again. She did not talk anything and I also did not either, and so the night went by.

This time I did not dream of Serenity's past. I dreamed of killing her during a fight the next day, but when my sword was embedded in her stomach her current for over layered with that of her in childhood. Her crying eyes looking at me as blood escaped her mouth.

For some reason, I wanted to throw up as soon as I woke up.

It is now morning. Miku woke up as a… I want to say mess, but I feel she would somehow know what I am thinking (woman and their sixth sense for this kind of thing) and try to throw something at me because of it.

We all meet up at the terrace (I managed to convince Rin to rent the rest of the hotel for us… she cut my pay because of it *sniff**sniff*). The breakfast was not too sumptuous but very nutritive, with a lot of fruits, grains and all sorts of food that is good to give energy. We were all mostly in silent during this time, except for Kuroka that was talking excitedly with the Sister about gossip (the Sister is on a network that has so many points that gossip is something they never lack).

The chance a fight breaks out at any moment is very high. The tension is quite high but we tried to get a bit relaxed, being too stressed before a fight is not a good thing after all. So to relax I did the best thing I could think off.

Eat a pudding.

These things are delicious. I bought a deluxe package edition of my favorite mark (Compa's love), even the smell is good.

I took the first bite and I made a goofy smile, I just can't help it. This is just so goooooooooo~~~~dd.

I suddenly feel a person looking at me intently on my side, and look and behold Miku is still glaring at me.

No, now that I look better it is not at me that she is looking now.

"Do you want some?" I offered. She looks hesitant and then looked the other way.

It would normally mean 'no' but considering that she was stealing glances at this treasure of mankind I honestly doubt that. I can't really blame her, this is love in a cup (for me and anyone with good taste at least).

"Are you sure you don't want some?" I said again, offering a second time. It is courtesy to ask at least twice, or at least that is what Sakura-sensei told me.

"How would I know it is not poisoned?" She said looking the other way.

"And why would I do that?" I asked with a mix of irritation and amusement on her argument. It is like a kid throwing a tantrum if you replace kid for an attractive young lady (I am a man and will not deny that she is pretty, even if she is annoying most times).

"You may want to poison me so that you can go away and not get involved. Or you can want to put me to sleep to do things to me. Or anything else, I don't really know, but the important part is that I do not trust you." She said.

A vein must be about to burst on my forehead right now. She not only think I will betray her at this point, she even thinks I would ever resort to putting poison in a pudding.

Not the pudding. How can she think this bad of me?

"Eat it." I said with a serious face.

"No"

"Eat it now." I said with even more emphasis.

"I will not eat anything offered by you. I do not trust you, you are a liar." She said glaring at me.

The tension in the whole room raised to new peaks as this conversation got more heated. Everyone was looking to see what we will do next.

I glared back at her. Then I got up and did something that I normally never would have done. I filled a spoon with this pudding and-

Shove it down her mouth.

She started struggling, trying to get me to leave her so she could spit it out. Her eyes were ablaze in fury, a true inferno of fury, too big for just this much. She was looking at me as if she was not even actually looking at me, but someone else right now.

Kanda tried to help her, but as soon as he went for his sword another sword appeared at his neck. Arthur (as the good bro he is) stopped Kanda before he could try to do something stupid, but if their mutual glares were any indication they were as good as enemies now. I mean there were lightning between them with their glares.

Miku then ended up swallowing the pudding. She started coughing and her glare intensified but I looked at her with indifference.

"I said more than once and will say it again, you are safe with me. I would never resort to poisoning you or hurt you, so stop looking at me as if I AM YOUR FUCKING ENEMY ALREADY!" I said the last part with considerable power in it. She looked taken aback with this, something flickered in her eyes but vanished right after as she gave that same smile again.

I hate this smile.

I choose to ignore it and restart eating my pudding.

Haaah~, this is delicious. It is like all the tension on my body vanished just like that. There is nothing else now, just me and my puddi-

*Cellphone ringing*

I am not eating my pudding in peace at all, right?

With a sigh, I answered the phone.

"Hello, this is Castiel. Who wants to talk to me?" I asked as the number appeared blocked, not a good sign.

"*sigh* And here I was hoping for you to have walked away."

A shiver went down my spine hearing this voice, it was that fat fucker from yesterday. I immediately made a quiet sign so that everyone would stay quiet as I put the call on the speakers.

"What do you want?" The steel in my voice made all people in the table tense up, they obviously realized that it must be someone among the enemies that is calling me.

"What no greetings? What a disappointment. Oh well, at least you are not that bimbo bitch you are protecting, so I guess it is progress." He said with a letdown voice. My irritation went through the roof with this guy.

To be offending a woman like that is NOT okay.

"Shut your trap. If you are going to call me just to talk badly about Miku you may as well take this phone and shove it so high up your ass that it comes out of your mouth." I said a bit too much, I know, but talking about a girl like that is never okay.

"*sigh* And here I was hoping that you would not act like that. I will ask you one last time, are you going to leave her and go away?" He asked seriously.

"I will stay right here." I said without a second thought or a second of delay.

There was a silence of a few seconds then he said.

"Suit yourself. Bitch, do it."

I heard on the background a very small sound of a click, then

KKKKKAAAAABBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

.

.

.

.

The hotel went down.

* * *

When I woke up after the fall I saw that we were on a dome made of something silvery.

" **Volumen Hydrargyrum** " a woman voice said beside us, then the whole dome started liquefying and shrinking becoming a glob of mercury at the feet of the mage that used it.

LeFay sighed in relief seeing that she managed to use her magic in time, the fall would not be fatal for them but the wounds would make things complicated. But the look she had when she looked at me was strange, to say the least.

I then looked at myself and realized that I had hugged Miku during the fall putting her on top of myself so as to protect her. It was a reflex motion as I had put myself on a small self-hypnosis to 'protect her whenever I can', so for me to act this way without even realizing was not strange at all to me.

Everyone else started getting up after the shock passed. When we all were together we saw that the whole hotel was blown in pieces so staying here was not a good idea as the police and firefighters would be coming.

As we moved away from the scene I was thinking about what we should do next. Staying on the street like that was the worst option as we could be attacked anytime, and the damage to civilians was not something I desired and considering that our enemies did not seem to care about it, it would be best not to stay like this for long.

As we reached an alley a fair distance away an idea passed through my mind at that instant.

"Kuroka, you can sense life energy right?" I asked.

"I can, but what use could it have now? We are in the middle of a city so sensing where there is life is as useless as it gets." She said dismissively.

"No, it is exactly what we need." I said, making Kuroka tilt her head in confusion. "Our enemies have some humans that are closer to a mix of different life-forms and some others that, while humans, do not have life-force or is transformed into pure magic. If you can sense life-force so you should be capable of noticing where these individuals are as they are very different from the rest." I proposed this idea to her.

After a while, she nodded her head and decided to give it a shot. She stayed quiet on the same spot for a few instants, then she shot up and said.

"They are coming!"

Not two second later and a giant thunder strike hit us from a distance, breaking right through the building without a second thought.

We managed to make some defenses against the thunder thanks to Kuroka's warning, but the damage on the area around us was quite big as many light poles exploded due to the current that went through them from the aftermath of this attack.

As we looked at the responsible for this we saw Skin Bolic. He was not using his full sacred gear yet, just the arm in this case, but the thunder he released was powerful. Much more so than the one he used on the last attack.

He probably did not go all out before, but now he is serious.

He is smirking while looking at us and was preparing one more strike when-

WOSH

Okuyasu appeared in front of him, using his sacred gear, and went straight to punch him so as to stop Skin. Unfortunately, the thunder was ready and he fired at us anyway.

The sister entered in front of us all.

"Don't think you are the only one that uses thunder here, says Misaka trying to be heroic." She then used her control over magnetism to change the course of the thunder from straight to an upward curve, missing us all.

At that instant, 20 exorcists appeared from the top of the building (they were probably waiting in ambush). One of them started to transform their arms into tentacles and some of the others transformed their arms into… canons? How the hell you turn an arm into a canon?

The ones with canon arms aimed below and prepared to shot, but faster than the release of said shot Arthur jumped using mana burst and slashed in a wide arc using his sword. If it was a normal sword it would not do much but his sword was **Excalibur Galantine** , the sister sword of **Excalibur** that Saber has.

With this one strike, he released a wave of flames that covered all exorcists. But the ones with tentacles covered the ones with Canons and the regeneration speed of the tentacles offset the damage received.

Normally if someone sees their attack being useless they would be discouraged, but Arthur smiled seeing this. He fished out a cube from his pocket and released it in the middle between himself and the exorcist, being pulled to the death arena.

He probably was excited to see someone that can resist his sword, the flames it releases are quite strong so most enemies just die instantly, so whenever he sees someone that can survive the first strike he gets 'a bit' animated and forgets everything else around him.

Seeing that part of his support was gone, Bolic did not seem bothered at all, if his smile was anything to go.

He liberated a wide arc of electricity all around him so as to force Okuyasu to jump back before another strike could happen. When he had some space between him and us he took out a bunch of cards from his pocket and throw them in the air.

From each of those cards a magical circle appeared and from each one of them an exorcist popped up. It is sorta like the system the devils use, but more militarized.

"What you going to do now?" He says, rushing in with 5 transforming exorcists and around 10 with vacant eyes.

Answering his challenge is Okuyasu, Seryu (that rushed in with Koro already looking like a white mini Hulk) and the Sister. They took out another death arena cube and thrown it in their midst, pulling themselves to a death match.

It may have seemed to have taken long, but it all happened in under 10 seconds. Now there is only me, Miku, Emily, Kanda, Kuroka, and LeFay.

I then looked at Kuroka and asked.

"Do we need to worry about more people jumping at us now?" My voice was probably steely as she took a step back when I said that.

"Just a minute please, I need to look at abnormal flows in a whole city with millions of people. This is not an easy job at all, Nyaa~~. I just noticed them earlier that fast due to their proximity." She said and then stayed very quiet with her eyes closed.

While she stayed like that LeFay made a magic shield around us to protect us and make us invisible. It was a good call as staying in the open was never a good idea under these circumstances.

We were worried about our friends, but now all we can do is trust them and keep going. There is no helping someone in the death arena so all we can do is go forward.

After a minute Kuroka opened her eyes and looked straight at us.

"There are two groups of them right now, Nyaa~. One is coming from the east, has about 3 modified exorcists, 35 modified humans and one normal one that is exuding considerable malice. On the west, there is a force made with about 15 modified exorcists, 15 modified humans and one life signature that has an amazing amount of life-energy." She said, not showing the least amount of worry on her face or voice. She probably isn't anyway as she is quite strong.

"What do you guys think? Should we stick together or should we separate to deal with both sides separately?" I asked, but before I could receive the others input my phone ringed again.

As I took it out I saw that the number is blocked a chill went down my back.

"What is it, you fucker?" I said, knowing that there is almost a 100% chance of it being who I think it is.

"Is that any way to talk with us?" The voice of that fatso said with disdain on the other side of the phone. "Well, not that it matters. I just want to warn you of something. There are two groups of us in two separate locations, the fir-"

"We already know where you are, and we are all going there to kill your fat ass." I said with killing intent oozing out of my mouth. Knowing my friends are right now fighting in death matches with people that lost their humanity because of this fucker experiments made me want to gut him alive right here and now.

I swear that if even one of them is hurt I will put all curses I possibly can on his very soul to make even his existence on whatever pit in hell he ends up even worst that it would be. I myself never went to this extreme, but this bastard is making me want to experiment on that.

"Oh, that is surprising. You must have someone very good at detection on your side then." His voice was condescending. As if my treat just now did not even register on his mind. "It is quite true that you COULD come after us right now with your full force, your chances of finishing me off then would be quite high. BUT you won't do that." I could swear I could see his smirk _through_ the phone. "And you know why? Because I ordered my soldiers on the other side to go on a rampage all over the city in case no one fights them in 10 minutes."

THIS BASTARD!

He is not killing civilians as an after-thought, he is using this _whole city_ as a hostage.

"What do you want?" I asked trying to reign in my hate, and likely failing quite bad.

"Haha, I knew you would understand. I want you and the dirty bitch to come to me alone, those others with you can go and play with Lugh or just go back home for all I care. I am on the top of Towa Tower, Lugh and her squad are on Piece of Heaven elementary school terrace. Remember, you have ten minutes or we will start to rampage throughout the city." The fat bastard is truly the worst type of asshole there could be. He not only is using this whole city as a hostage but he also is positioned in an elementary school and the top of one of the biggest firms in Japan.

What do I do? Do I follow his instructions or go in force to kill him before anything else can happen?

Before the call ended I heard a whisper, very soft and extremely quiet, to the point that I almost missed it completely.

"…please don't come…" I heard a voice, Serenity's voice telling me not to come over there.

"*SLAP* Who said you got to talk when superior beings are discussing something, you low life-form. Learn your place." He then started stomping on something, the sound of a boot and flesh filled the call.

SNAP

You know what? Fuck it, I will go and kill this bastard myself.

"I will be there." Was all I answered before ending the call and turning to the others. "Guys, I am sorry but we will follow his demands. You are all to go and face Lugh and a group of his monstrosities at Piece of Heaven Elementary school. I will go with Miku to Towa Tower to face off against him and the ones he has there." I said, knowing full well how bad it all can get. But I do not have much of a choice if I don't obey he is just going to rampage across the whole city and the collateral would be on the thousands of lives at the very least.

I cannot and will not let that happen.

The others look concerned, they know it is risky. Hell, I can die very easily if we do this, but I will do it anyway.

"Do your best out there, Nyaa~. If you fall, at least take them with you Nyaa~." Kuroka said before starting to dash off to the school. Since what happened to Koneko she has a soft spot for kids and does not let them get hurt at all whenever she can help.

"I will be leaving then, Castiel-sama, Miku-sama. W-wish me luck." LeFay said before pulling a broom out of her hat and flying off using it. She always had a thing for theatrics.

"…I will go settle the score with Lugh." Kanda said after a moment looking at me and Miku… who was still silent since I shoved the pudding at her. Kanda then just started running full speed to face off Lugh, he REALLY must hate to lose.

Then it was just me, Emily and Miku at the park. Emily looked conflicted for a moment, then she took a strong face and left without saying a single word. Who knows exactly what is on her mind, but she has chosen to simply go and did not turn to look back.

I then looked at Miku in the eyes. I saw insecurity, fear and something else in there. She was conflicted between going and not going.

"Miku, I know I am being a failure as a bodyguard now. I am taking you straight to the enemies and you may get hurt if you go with me, but I need to go. If I… no, if WE don't go many people out there are going to die. Please, please will you go with me there." I said to her in a pleading voice.

It may seem counter-productive but I will not simply take her against her will to somewhere that may bring her harm. If she refuses to go, I will put a barrier around her. One as strong as I possibly can, and go alone. I will not let the innocent die, but I also will not let Miku die.

"I-I.." She did not know what to say to me.

THUD

I went down my knees. It is humiliating and something I should NEVER do as it would tarnish the Tower reputation. But if I must do this to help save lives I will do it without a second thought.

She looks shocked as she also understands what my actions may entail if looked by others.

"Please Miku, please help me save them. I swear with my very soul that I will not let you die, so please help me." I said to her.

She looks at me for some time, then she closed her eyes and said.

"Of course I will go too. I am a goddess from the Japanese Pantheon, protecting our people is my duty." She said, but before she started leaving she turned to me and said. "I still don't trust you, liar."

I just gave a tired smile at that and started walking to my destination beside Miku. As I walked my face morphed from a tired smile to a poker face. No emotions on it what so ever.

But if someone could see past that, what they would see is just one thing.

A promise of DEATH.

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Next will be one focussing on Arthur. I changed his personality a bit, making him more battle hungry. But again, on canon, he accepted joining Vali's team to search for stronger opponents and he barely appears fighting on the novel so I decided to change him up a bit.**

 **Also, to those who don't get the reference the thing that LeFay used was the same that Kayneth (Lancer's Master in the 4° holy grail war) used during his fight against Kiritsugu on fate/zero.**

 **And for those who thought that Castiel's reaction to bending his knee was exaggerated, I want to point out that the supernatural world is controlled by old fogies of easily hundreds of years and as such put considerable value on pride and honor. Almost as much as power, and as such they would look at someone begging as a show of inferiority. Such thing is dangerous as this inferiority** **can show that the Tower is 'easy to defeat' and as such, they could attack them to try and conquer it.**


	32. Chapter 27

3° person P.O.V.

On one death arena, there were many individuals.

In one corner there is about 20 man dressed as exorcists, or formerly dressed as such as their bodies transformed into aberrations.

About 8 of them turned into a figure that looks like a balloon with cannons attached. The only thing reassembling a human in there is the face that remains, but turned white and was locked in a screaming position. As if even their faces turned into masks. For practicality let's call them balloon-man (Writer Note: Imagine the level 1 Akuma from man)

The other 12 are all different in some way or fashion. All of them had tentacles coming out of their shoulders, but one had spikes coming out of his whole body; one looked like an overgrow frog; one looked like simply a mass of tentacles; one got a tail like a scorpion and the claws to match; one had arms that looked like a gorilla, but bulkier, scales covering it and with six arms instead of 2. And even then there were many other forms and figures amongst those monstrosities.

It was a true zoo of horrors, deformations that should never exist in this world in the first place.

Facing all of them was a single man, Arthur Pendragon the heir of the Pendragon Clan.

He, under normal circumstances, was a man that strived for personal growth and following his master that he respected and admired above all else (even when she put him through tortures she called training).

BUT

When in a situation where his fighting instinct is ignited-

He simply is a man looking for a fight.

SPRINT

He decided to not wait for his opponents to strike first, so he used mana burst to accelerate to his max speed to the closest enemy to him, a man with tentacles and body covered in an ooze that was advancing towards him.

Using his momentum Arthur used his sword to cut said enemy before he could try anything.

SLICE

He accomplished his goal of cutting his opponent in half, but it was far from enough. Slime man, despite being cut into two halves on the waist, simply used one of his tentacles that were there on his shoulders to hold Arthur's leg.

While stopping to move for a second may not be a big deal most of the time, in this case, it was quite a bad idea as those balloons started liberating a barrage of holy energy bullets towards Arthur.

"Tch." Was all he said as he activated his sword once again to liberate flames so as to incinerate all those holly bullets. What Arthur failed to see was that the other enemies were moving just as well.

The one to reach him first was one that had the body all red and with horns growing out of his head. Despite his demonic appearance (he looked exactly like Satan is described in paintings) he was using holly energy to augment his horns penetrations powers and, as such, had a simple strategy on his mind, 'I will head-butt him to death'.

Seeing the approaching danger Arthur used his sword to protect himself by drawing it back enough to put it in the way of said horns, but without stopping to release his flames as it was the only thing stopping all those bullets from hitting him.

Showing that he was not out of danger just yet another monstrosity's hand popped out off the ground and started to try and bring his to the underground.

Surrounded under these circumstances Arthur realized that this was not going well. Between losing mobility on both his legs (one for slime man and one for the underground fella), the balloon monsters that were showering him with bullets, this devil-like man and all those approaching him, Arthur could only think that things were not looking good.

He then took the horn of the devil look-alike and with all his strength throw him in the air in front of him so that he was in the way of the bullet's barrage. Seeing one of their own being thrown in the middle of the way those balloon-man stopped shooting for an instant, no more than a second really, and that was enough.

Seeing that the pressure on him got smaller he turned **Galantine** downwards and stabbed it on the ground at an angle that cut the tendril from the slime-man and penetrated in the ground afterward. Feeling that the other monstrosities were closing in Arthur ignited his sword to full power making the floor around him turn from solid stone to magma and explode in all directions.

BOOM

Taking advantage of that explosion and that the underground arm that was holding him before was no longer connected to a body (the ground where the arms owner was just turned to magma and exploded so expecting him to be fine is stretching) Arthur jumped back and used mana burst to get as far away from encirclement of monsters as he possibly could.

After jumping far enough away he assessed the situation. He was not overly hurt, just a small burn on his hand that took that devil look-alike's horn as said horn was overcharged with holy element. He realized that jumping right in against these guys would not work out.

He then decided that his best course of action is eliminating those balloon-man first as they are the aerial support, as long as they were there he could not fight with full power as he would have to direct most of his sword fire to protect himself.

A smile suddenly appeared on his face realizing that this would not be an easy fight at all. He loves this feeling, this trill, the knowledge that one wrong step means death.

That was the sort of moment that he felt more alive.

He jumped to the sky and, using small mana bursts to propel himself, advanced towards those balloons. He could use mana bursts quite easily as he was a direct descendant of King Arthur and, as such, was born with the same advantage that his ancestor had.

A magic core, something in him akin to a factory of mana, making it almost impossible for him to fully run out of mana.

Seeing that their opponent was heading towards them the balloon-man started shooting in rapid fashion towards him, less the killing type and more the incapacitating one as it would possibly force him down the ground.

BUT

Arthur was a disciple of Saber, one of the greatest warriors in history, how could he be stooped for things so simple as that.

He saw all those shots coming and started evading in 3D so as to avoid all those shots. The ones he could not avoid he simply cut with his sword. After getting close in, he used his sword and cut the first one… or tried to.

Their skin was resistant like reinforced carbonic fiber and their flesh was like a mix between rubber and metal. Even with his strength, he did not manage to cut right through them. So when he tried to cut the first one in half he ended up with his sword allocated in between his flesh, incapable of moving even a centimeter further.

Seeing this as a chance the other balloon-man directed their full powers to explode him, even if there would be some sacrifices (the one that was with the sword IN HIS FLESH).

As he saw the situation that he was in Arthur did not fear it in the slightest. He ignited his sword inside his enemy, burning him inside-out. As soon as he felt his sword being freed from the confines of his opponent's charred body he jumped up so as to avoid the barrage coming his way.

And in this way, the first one died.

Seeing that his plan worked Arthur decided to go after the others and repeat the same plan. He managed to repeat the process more four times, eliminating four enemies.

Things were starting to look good for him, he was eliminating those flying 'gunners' one after the other and those freaks on the ground could not do a thing.

This all may have seemed to take long, but it took less than 10 seconds in the end to complete all these actions and eliminate all 5 of the balloon-man. Arthur was already shooting himself to the next one when-

One of the monstrous exorcists suddenly appeared right in front of him. This was the one with spikes all over his body, he was thrown on the air by another one that had six arms.

Before Arthur could try and take him out, the spiked monstrosity suddenly liberated all the spikes he had, making it like a wall of steel-like spikes flying on Arthur direction.

Seeing the approaching death wall Arthur instinctively palmed the air in front of him liberating as much mana as he could so as to throw himself back.

WOOSH

Getting far enough from the danger, he released a sigh of relief. 'That was dangerous', was what passed through his mind.

What he did not expect was that the frog look-alike would shot a mucus at his back. Arthur did not feel anything from the mucus on the start, just that it was cold, but not even three seconds later that mucus solidified and with that turned into a crystal.

Said crystal had a sickly yellow coloration and was heavy. TRULY heavy, so much so that the mana bursts he was released with each step was not enough to keep him in the air anymore.

CRASH

Falling to the ground, Arthur realized that flying was no longer an option. He knew that he should be worried, be frustrated, be scared for himself or the others, but that was not what he was feeling that instant.

He showed a smile. A small one at first, but it quickly grew and from that, a sound came out of his throat.

"ha. Haha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" A maniacal laughter erupted from himself. "Yes, do it more! Show me more! FIGHT MORE!"

Arthur then starts to charge his whole power for a full power-strike with his sword. He still was far from mastering either his blade OR his excessive amount of mana, but executing one full strike with his sword is still in his capacities.

He launched his sword to the sky and when it was rotating an image of the sun itself appeared. When the sword fell back on his hand he immediately made a sweeping motion aimed at those in the ground.

And during this motion he yelled at the top of his lungs purring all his energy in this strike:

"This sword transfers the sun's body. The heat of these flames shall cleanse the impure. **Excalibur Galatine!** "

With that, a wave of fire so hot that could burn even gods reached his enemies. (Writer note: imagine a Getsuga Tenshou with the thickness of 5 meters made with pure fire)

BURN

Screams ensured as there were some that burned to ashes. However, not all of them were killed in that fire. There were 5 survivors, they had survived by hiding behind the backs of their allies.

Even so, those 5 were still badly burned, so much so that if Arthur went that instant to face them he could kill them all with no effort.

The keyword is the 'if'.

Unfortunately, Arthur could not do that.

"*PANT* *PANT* *PANT* W-well it could be worst." Was all Arthur could say at that time. Using this move was too exhausting, even for someone with a magic core. He could not use his flames or mana for at least a minute, and that is AFTER he took a pill made from the alchemy department that focused on accelerating the natural recovery of mana.

But, the effect desired was reached. He managed to cut down the number of opponents to just three balloon-man and 5 monstrosities.

He would not do this move earlier for two reasons: first is that this movement spent too much magic power and if there were to be too many enemies after he executed this attack he would be screwed (he might have nearly unlimited magic energy reserves, but his magic circuits still are limited after all); second, and more important for Arthur, is 'what fun would there be in defeating most of them that fast?'.

Taking his sword up Arthur readied himself for whatever may happen next.

The balloon-man re-started shooting with even more ferocity as soon as they got a clear view of him (there was quite a bit of smoke after the attack after all, and they stayed far away from the giant ball of fire that appeared on the sky for a moment).

With many bullets made out of light flying towards him at fast speed, Arthur got no time for rest. He immediately started using his superior speed to evade all those strikes that could incapacitate him.

PIERCE

A tendril pierced the side of his abdomen. One of those monstrosities managed to evade his senses and sneaked its… tongue ('disgusting' was what passed through Arthur's head seeing this), that was shaped like a spear, right through him.

Turning around to cut the tongue with a flick of his sword he ended up in a bad spot, in the meaning that all those bullets aimed at him actually made contact. After cutting the tongue off (but it remained housed in his guts as he did not have the time to remove and also knew that removing it too early would possibly make him bleed-out) Arthur saw the bullets close to hitting him on the back.

Seeing no chance of evading he could only brace himself for the worst, purring as much mana as he could in reinforcement so as to mitigate the damage.

BOOM

Being thrown more than 3 meters in the sky, Arthur felt a burning feeling in his throat. He could not hold it and simply spit all the blood that was accumulated on it.

No time was given to him as another monstrosity came, this time it was the one full of spikes that after approaching Arthur started liberating many spikes in his direction. Arthur desperately tried to cut down all of them as he could not evade it due to lack of mana to use mana burst, but even with all his effort, he could not cut all those spikes.

PIERCE  
PIERCE  
PIERCE

PIERCE

He ended up full of spikes running through his body. Mostly they ended up on his legs as he managed to defend his arms quite well and his torso as well (if you don't count those two spikes on the left side and the one that grazed his upper ribs).

Finally getting on the ground again he saw that the spike monstrosity was trying to go back to where those others where. He was not going to let that happen.

Despite over-heating his own magic core, Arthur forced himself to combine his reinforcement and mana burst to achieve a burst of speed fast enough to get to that monstrosity as fast as possible. When the spike monstrosity heard the sound of something approaching at high speed it quickly liberated the strongest possible spikes from his hands.

These new spikes were golden in color and were capable of puncturing steel as if it was tofu, but in front of Galantine, those spikes could as well be twigs. Despite the spike monstrosity putting those spikes crossed in front of his chest Galantine cut right through it, and the monstrosity's body.

At that same instant a new tongue came for Arthur's back again, but this time he was ready for it. By reinforcing his body to the limit he managed to elevate his reaction time enough to sense when the tongue was close to hitting him and, turning his free hand to his back, managed to catch said tongue before it could penetrate him again.

Seeing this as a chance Arthur pulled with all his strength and managed to brought the infected with the big tongue close to him. He had green scales covering his whole body (probably how he survived the fire with no great damage), big eyes that could move in all directions and a tail.

This monstrosity tried to retaliate, but his claws did not reach him fast enough as Galantine has a bigger reach.

Now there were only three balloon-man and three monstrosities. Those three were the one with six arms, one with skin looking like magma (veins in top running with magma just as well) and the final one being made exclusively of tentacles.

With his current state, Arthur decided that taking down the one made from Tentacles would be a good start. If he took out the ones with ranged abilities first, then it would be possible to avoid any surprise attacks at close range. As he could not go for the Balon-man yet due to needing more time for the circuits to cool down the ranged attacker on the ground was another story.

Gripping Galantine's hilt, Arthur stood up slowly, despite the pain that he was in thanks to overheating his Magic Core. He would have to rely solely on skill alone for the time being if he didn't want to have further damaged caused by his Magic Core.

But, he could at least afford some reinforcement on his legs to dull the pain there, and he did so. With that done, Arthur broke into a sprint towards the Tentacle mass monster. The other two made to get in front of their comrade while the six-armed one tried to restrain him.

However, Arthur simply smirked, his eyes flashing with a victorious glint as he leaned backward, digging his feet into the ground as he slid right under the two monsters before pushing himself into the air.

The Tentacle monster roared as it launched a volley of its many Tentacles into the air towards him, intending to spear him from every vital organ he possessed. Arthur however, anticipated this and pushed enough mana into his arms for slight reinforcement before they became a blur of motion, cutting through the Tentacles. Pain roared as he did this, but Arthur pushed past it as he fell towards his prey, his eyes shining with predatory glee.

The Tentacle monster groaned, fear filling it as it tried to stop him with more tentacles, but alas it was for nought, for the more Tentacles it launched, the more Arthur began to see its weakness: Despite the tentacles regenerating fast they all came from a single, orange glowing and pulsating organ that he could only assume was its heart.

The man made a direct beeline for that organ, cutting through any Tentacles that got in its way before he drove Galantine into the creature's heart. The Tentacle monster screech and cawed, Tentacles writhing in mad flutters like that one guy with the Tentacle beard on that one pirate movie Le Fay made him watch with her one time.

It soon fell down to the ground with a loud thud though, it was dead.

Turning to face his last 2 monstrous opponents, Arthur heaved constantly as he held Galantine in a ready stance. His body pleaded for rest, but his mind refused such notions since there was still work to do. That one with the Magma would be the last one he fought today, that was for certain. He didn't want that magma anywhere near his flesh if he could help it.

That meant the six armed gorilla man would have to go.

His target decided, Arthur held Galantine defensively, waiting for the enemy to make the next move. He didn't have to wait long though, for the Magma one roared as it charged at him, its fists raised for 2 overhead slams. The warrior's eyes narrowed at the sight, momentarily tension filling his gut before he quashed it. He could work with this, he could do so with gusto.

He'd survive this, for his family's sake and for his wish to become the best swordsman in the world.

With that in mind, Arthur waited for the creature to come close, holding Galantine in a reverse horizontal swinging position. His eyes sharpened, his legs bent in preparation. This would be a close one, much too close for his liking, but it would ensure it would just be the Six-armed man and the balloon-man for him to face. That thing moved slower than the others, something he'd noticed during the battle, so it wouldn't reach its comrade in time.

Once the magma monster was close enough to begin bringing down its fists, Arthur lunged right past it, pushing his speed to its limits without the use of mana to reinforce them. He narrowly dodged the fists though, despite them barely nicking some strands of his hair. his form blurred across the battlefield, but nothing that the Six-armed monster couldn't make out as it roared, rearing its arms back for a series of punches.

Arthur closed the distance, and he had to dash to the side to avoid the punches. The man didn't stop moving though, as he used the momentum from his charge to dash towards its rear. His lungs burned, his heart pounded, yet despite his situation, Arthur couldn't help but enjoy this moment, this thrill of being on the line between life and death. To him, this was what it meant to be a warrior. To him, being so close to death was the best sign that you were truly living.

Swinging Galantine, Arthur managed to cut off one of the Six-armed man's legs, making it howl in agony as it fell to the ground, using its arms to balance itself. Its scales may have defended against the full brunt of his attack, but Galantine was a holy sword on par with Excalibur, and thus it would not be denied a limb that easily. It defended well... for the first second, before giving way to the divine blade.

The six armed monstrosity used his arms to propel himself back, trying to get some distance from Arthur as his blade was simply too powerful. Arthur decided to let him go, giving his circuits some time to recover some more being his priority.

Sounds of stomping alerted him to the magma monster having charged at him from behind, using the same tactic he had just employed. Arthur glanced behind him and noticed it making to slam its fist down on him again. However, he had an idea for this and umped his legs with energy before jumping forwards. The first hit solid earth, sending out a powerful shockwave.

That was what Arthur wanted though, as he used the shockwave to propel himself through the air towards his prey without having to waste any more energy. Arthur smiled at his plan working, as he flew through the air like a torpedo launched from a submarine. The Six-armed monster glanced upwards and saw him coming, making to raise one of its arms to punch him. However, it had been unable to react in time, thanks to Arthur's speed and the propelling he'd done, and thus Galantine was shoved right through its face, impaling its brain and running it through.

It became dead instantly.

Now there were only the balloon-man and the magma monstrosity.

Looking inwards Arthur saw that it would be one more minute until he could start using mana burst again. A time that looks quite long, but in this situation is far from that simple.

Those three balloon-man were quiet during the whole previous experience, thinking it strange Arthur looked upward and saw that they were fusing somehow.

It was a grotesque sight, it was like they turned into a sludge that started to fuse and with that a different creature surged. It had a metallic body, two hands with the finger-claws that looked like they could cut anything and three faces. But the most troublesome part was that it had two wings that look straight out of a firefly and two organic canon-like appendices on its back that were charging energy that could easily eliminate most low high-class devils (or high mid-class from other species).

In other words, it looked like trouble.

Seeing this he immediately ducked to the side, as the spot he was before was turned into scorched earth by that monster's attack. Seeing this even the magma like enemy decided to take a step back and went to as far away from the fighting, no point in sticking around and end up as collateral, especially since he knew that when those balloon types fused they went berserk and would not differentiate between ally and enemy.

Arthur could do nothing but keep running as fast as his legs could with the reinforcement he put in them. However, despite he putting all his energy in running he could not evade it all, thus many debris from the shots hit him on the back, making him lose even more blood.

At this point, Arthur had already been feeling a splitting headache and started feeling cold on his fingers, clear signs that he was losing too much blood. But he could not do anything about it except put reinforcement on his wounds to stop the bleeding as much as possible.

As the time passed and more and more shots were made there were less and fewer places for him to go as most of the arena was destroyed by either him or his enemies at this point. But Arthur did not get desperate, he was a disciple of Saber and a descendant of King Arthur himself. Arthur's heart was not that weak.

He put all his efforts into running more and more, the time was passing and he could do nothing but wait for the time that he could finally fight back.

And then the time arrived.

Feeling that his magic circuits cooled down enough Arthur used a mana burst to launch himself as fast as he could to the sky, directly towards his enemy.

He needed to finish this quickly as his body condition was getting worst and worst by the second.

As he approached the enemy he saw the monstrosity trying to use a claw swipe to cut him into pieces, but those claws, while being made of the same flesh that gave him trouble before, were simply too thin to actually stop his holy blade. With one single motion, he cut down those claws and managed to follow it up by cutting all three heads by using a mana burst on the blade so as to move it sideways as fast as possible.

Now that he managed to kill this enemy there was only one left, the magma one.

Taking advantage of his position in mid-air he used a final mana burst to launch himself to the ground as fast as possible to cut down his enemy.

The magma one tried to use his fists that could crush the earth against Arthur, but it was no use. When they crossed each other Arthur managed to evade his opponent's fist while cutting him down diagonally.

Finally, seeing that all his opponents were killed Arthur gave a sigh of relieve. This may have been a great fight but it was too close for his taste.

'I still need to train more' was what was on his mind.

"Ku ku ku." Hearing the sound of a weak laughter Arthur looked around and saw that there was one last survivor. The magma monstrosity was still alive, but he clearly was in no conditions to keep fighting and would die any second now.

Arthur learned from Saber long ago that leaving someone suffering a slow painful death was not something he should do, so he decided to approach him and finish what he started.

"Any last words?" Arthur asked, more out of habit than anything else. It was one more thing Saber taught him.

The magma one looked at him and gave a smile, then he said.

"ALL HAIL ISCARIOTS!" and bite his own mouth, activating a small gadget that all of them carried inside themselves. An activation signal for something they all had inside themselves.

The activation signal for a suicidal bomb

 ** _KKKKAAAAAABBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN_**

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed. Nex chapter will be for Okuyasu, Seryu and the Sister against the monstrosities and Skin Bolic. There will also be a character from terraformars in there, I hope you guys enjoy it.**

 **And answering the ramdonguest1 question, yes the tower does have many Gogmagog as they serve as one of the defensive measures from the Tower. But they do not leave Tower territory so you guys won't be seeing one any time soon. And LeFay doesn't keep one with her as it would be beyond hard to use since she is not a terrorist now but a proper member of an organization. She could get away with it on Vali's team but being part of the Tower she can't.**

 **And a final question, did you guys enjoyed the Arthur in my story? I decided to change him up a bit and make him show his battle hungryness some more.**

 **Stay tuned for the next chapter, king out.**


	33. Chapter 28

3° person P.O.V.

In another death arena, another battle was about to start.

"Hahahaha, that is great. Three enemies waiting for choosing." Skin Bolic said, griming with desire for battle. "Now who to choose?" He pointed to the Sister. "The one to redirect my thunder," then he pointed to Seryu "the one with the beast beside, or" he then pointed to Okuyasu. "the one to punch me earlier." A maniacal grin was on his face while considering his options, all so appetizing for him.

However, while he was doing his monologue the others were not frozen in the spot. Okuyasu was already circulating his Ki to augment his capacity to the max, the Sister was finishing equipping her weapons and Koro, that was beside Seryu, already turned into a three meters' tall mass of destruction.

On the other side, preparations were made as well. One of the monstrosities had his body create a red and white carapace, one that slid out of his skin which began bulging with many grotesque organic tearing sounds, with enlarged forearms and his two eyes grown to the outside of his body, kind of alike to the Tasmanian king crab.

Another one also got a carapace, but compared to the last one, it was less bulky and his hands twisted and remolded themselves, mutating into large, twisted and deadly-looking claws. His eyes changed from a human's to that of composed eyes that could see many times better than any human. He looked reminiscent to a peacock mantis shrimp.

The third one did not transform much, just opened up a lot of pores all over his body. He took out a light sword and a gun and got ready to fight. Looked like he was the only one among these exorcists to use these as he got no natural weapon. He had thick eyebrows and a forgettable face.

The fourth one was a woman, one of the sole women in the group. She, at first, looked normal but suddenly her hair started growing like it was overdosed with growth enzymes, to the point that her body could no longer be seen. All those hairs had a metallic luster on them, almost reminiscent of actual metal. (writer's note: she is based on Yukaku from Jojo part 4: diamond is unbreakable)

The fifth and final one had his body start enlarging into gigantic proportions. His skin gradually turned charcoal black, black splotches appearing over him and spreading across his body like an infectious bacteria. His head and mid-section merged together into one body part, and his mouth shifted its position to span from shoulder to shoulder with sharp, saw-like teeth and a fork-shaped tongue oozing this dark green, poisonous-looking liquid. Compared to the rest of them, he looked the most dangerous of the bunch of monstrosities.

The other ten empty humans simply stood there, staring at them blankly. Almost like dolls, or robots without emotions. They were already incapable of moving without orders and would simply do whatever they were ordered to. As the 'leader' of this group was Skin Bolic and he did not tell them to do anything as of yet they simply stood there.

The first one to move (completely ignoring Skin) was the one with pores all over his body. His name was Bao, an exorcist that was so regular in all aspects that if put in a crowd would be just one more face in there.

He aimed his gun, charging a light bullet to shot the Sister. However, as soon as he moved his finger to pull the triger-

BBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT

His head was vaporized by a thunder beam, courtesy of Skin Bolic.

"DON'T YOU DARE STEAL MY PREY!" He screamed before aiming at the body of his 'ally' that he killed and shooting once again, burning to a crisp everything from the waist up. "I choose who I want and you guys catch the scraps, that is what I decided."

Skin then thought a bit more and said.

"I want that girl that redirected my attack earlier and that guy with bad hair, you guys can get that weakling and her dog." He said before his yellow gauntlet shined and a voice said.

" ** _Balance breaker!_** "

The full body armor he used a few days ago reappeared, electricity running rampant on the surface of the armor and its surrounding.

Seryu looking at him rushing to Okuyasu and the Sister, and the other enemies rushing towards her, decided to talk to the others.

"Can you guys handle that thunder criminal?" She asked, knowing that it would take a while to deal with those others.

The Sister opened her mouth to answer when-

"What the fuck did you say about my hair, shithead?" Okuyasu ignored everything around him to rush towards his enemy by using his sacred gear.

"…I am going before he kills himself, Misaka says trying and failing to not roll her eyes from how simple minded Okuyasu-sama is." And then the Sister also went ahead, not going to close combat but staying at the optimal position to shot he guns.

"Well Koro, it seems that it is you and me against all of them." She said to the giant mass that is beside her. Normal people would be scared by the odds, one against many is not something most would find comfortable. Seryu was far from normal. Her eyes got dark while looking at those coming to kill her, she overlapped their appearance with that one stray that ruined her life. "Koro, form 1 with magic gems!"

Koro turned to her and almost swallowed her whole as he gave her the weapon she chose. As he removed himself from her Seryu form could be seen again.

She had a missile launcher of the same model as the one she used in her match against the Gremory peerage, but now instead of normal missiles, they had jewelry dust in the mix making them extremely potent magical bombs.

"JUSTICE!" She said as she shot all her missiles at her opponents.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

The destruction caused by those many missiles being launched was nothing to scoff at, from the fourteen that came to kill her 4 of the empty humans and the hair monstrosity were all killed instantly, body parts flying everywhere and ash all around. From the rest of the survivors, the empty human presented third degree burns covering their bodies but the three monstrosities were barely fazed by what happened as their carapace or flesh was strong enough to survive that.

"Tch. Koro, prepare for close combat." She said. "Form 3!" And then Koro swallowed her again, this time instead of an even bigger weapon she had in hands… or better hand a metal ball full of spikes. It also could expand to a two meters' radius and three tons' ball of metal, guaranty of making quite the damage. Her other hand was normal as she wanted one normal limb for better handling of opponents.

Meanwhile, Okuyasu and Skin have been exchanging punches like there is no tomorrow. Both of them were having trouble, Okuyasu due to the lightning that his opponent had covering his body and Skin due to Okuyasu strikes following the principle of internal energy and damage (Chinese Kempo) that rendered his armor half useless.

BANG

A bullet penetrated his shoulder when he was going for an upper-punch. Thanks to his shoulder being damaged he could not properly move his arm in time, giving Okuyasu an opening that he was more than glad to take. Okuyasu bent his knees a bit to use them as a spring for an uppercut right into Skin's jaw.

Feeling the damage to his jaw Skin was pissed, his sacred gear was energized by this feeling rising its power to a whole new level as the thunder that was covering his whole body got twice as thick than before.

Okuyasu tried to follow up on his attacks, but thanks to the thunder's coiling around Skin he needed to stop and take a step back.

That was the wrong decision.

As soon as he got breathing space Skin started launching thunder strikes from every possible area of his body, an indiscriminate attack. Okuyasu could do nothing more but use his SG(sacred gear) to evade Skin's attacks. Unfortunately, this decision that saved him ended up putting the Sister in a bad spot.

All Sister's had the problem of not having large reserves of mana, to begin with, so even if she was protecting herself by redirecting the lightning using electromagnetism she could not evade them all.

PIERCE

BBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

One of the lightning's managed to pass through her defense and vaporize a big chunk of the left side of her torso, burning away many important organs at the same time.

The Sister did not show any emotion at getting such serious wounds, she simply decided that she could not wait for the attack to finish anymore, as, despite the amount of thunder wracking havoc on the field being staggering, it showed no signs of ending. Her following action was surprising, to say the least as she started purring all her energy on creating a magnetic pole on the sky so as to attract al the thunder around the area to somewhere that would not make an issue.

The energy on the ground was getting smaller and smaller as she managed to redirect most of it to the sky, unfortunately it also meant that she was also electrically charged as part of the thunder energy ran into her (she was removing electrons from the clouds and purring them in the ground after all so she being overly charged with electrons was an obvious result). Her resolve was admirable, even when her skin started burning and her hair stood on end. Even if there were millions of volt running through her body she would survive, she was a homunculus made to manipulate electromagnetism and she could take even more thunder without dying.

Okuyasu seeing this scene fully snapped out of his rage (he calmed down a bit after breaking Skin's jaw but it was far from enough to get him to how he was original) and felt guilty. The hole in the Sister's body and every burn mark was a symbol of someone that he did not protect properly, her image overlapping with his parents and Asia making his stomach squirm and turn.

He knew what he should do, he needed to defeat Skin as fast as possible.

PIERCE

A bade pierced through flesh.

As the girl looked down she saw red flowing through her chest, a strange thing indeed as the red liquid started painting her clothes very fast.

"Guurgl." Was all that left her lips that were overwhelming with that red liquid. The cold she was feeling before got even worst as before her wounds were burned enough to barely bleed, but now there was no such thing.

"Alright, target eliminated." The man with the sword dripping with blood said after removing it by slicing it connecting the wound he made on the heart to the cauterized wound.

"What you are doing, Bao?" Skin screamed, pissed off that Bao was still stealing his prey.

The man that killed Sister was none other than Bao, the exorcist with pores all over his body that was 'killed' by Skin earlier.

"I am following orders. We were ordered to eliminate them and retrieve their corpses as intact as possible, so I simply took the most efficient path towards this goal." Bao said without thinking nothing of killing a girl that looked no more than 13.

'It is just my mission after all' that is the only thing that drives Bao.

"I don't care about that crap! She was my prey; how dare you steal it!" Skin bellowed as many thunder spheres started circulating him, all aimed at Bao who still had the same face as if nothing happened to begin with.

SLICE

A round thing suddenly flew through the air, and all sound all around was muted.

CRASH

That same thing fell to the ground and rolled away, a geyser of blood erupted from the headless body of Skin Bolic.

"Wasn't it too early, me?" Bao asked.

"I don't think so, we had a mission to kill him anyway, me." The other Bao said.

"Ok then, good job me." Bao said.

"And good job for you too, me." A new Bao said.

There were not one or two Bao's, but there were already 12 of them. All had the same appearance, the same thought pattern, and the same speech patterns.

They were all the same.

They were one.

They were many.

They were Bao, the biggest monstrosity on this field. A man that was part Coral, a man that could reproduce infinitely.

He was one of the masterpieces of Iscariots, a one-man turned instant army. He could parasite anyone, he could multiply infinitely, he was free of all actual emotions except loyalty. The perfect monster for such monstrous organization.

"You fucker, what do you think you are doing!?" Okuyasu screamed, finally realizing what just happened. The change was just too fast, too abrupt for him to comprehend and do anything before it was too late.

The Sister was dead, and all he did was look.

And worst of it all, that fucking son of a bitch was stepping on her body as if it was nothing.

Let it never be said that Okuyasu was irrational. He always had his order of priorities and at this moment they go like this:

1-Kill this dude

2-Kill this dude bad

3-Heal him just to kill him again

See, completely rational.

WHOSH

Swinging his SG, he scraped the space between himself and his opponent away, forcing one of the Bao's to come into close combat.

Bao tried to swing his sword towards him aiming straight to his neck, but Okuyasu was faster as he directed a punch to Bao's gut forcing him to vomit blood and bits of his organs as the punch aimed to destroy his internal organs.

Seeing that this one was dead Okuyasu got ready to pull another one so as to kill more of these fuckers when his instincts honed by the many trainings with his masters screamed at him.

DOWN!

He listened immediately throwing himself to the ground, an action that saved his life as a sword passed right through the spot that Okuyasu's torso was a second ago. The scariest part is that there was no killing intent on the attack, it was just like there was no emotion to be felt when you cut grass for Bao. It was all a mission after all.

"Arerere, you managed to avoid that? Good for you." Was all that Bao said before smiling warmly and aim his gun right at Okuyasu's back.

CLI-

CHOMP

A giant mass of white and muscles bite down on the Bao that was about to shoot Okuyasu's back. That was Koro, the 'pet' of Seryu.

Seeing as he managed to avoid death he looked at his surroundings. There were now four of the empty humans (they were a bad match against Kuro regeneration and the initial burns were taking their tool) and Seryu was doing her absolute best to fight off against those monstrosities… but why did she only have one arm?

* * *

Two minutes ago

Seryu was not a patient girl, seeing as those villains were heading towards her she decided not to wait and advance instead. Sprinting at her top speed she managed to reach the most advanced one of the enemies, the crab one.

When she got close enough to him she got to see him in more details, he was completely covered in a red and white carapace and had beam sized eyes that were pretty much the only visible part of his body. His 'hands' were shaped like claws and despite its bizarre appearance, those claws were radiating a massive amount of light energy showing that even a single strike could cut steel like butter.

That was bad news for Seryu that had prosthetic arms. But she did not falter, she went forward and swung the metal ball expanding it to be as big as her opponent. The crab managed to stop said ball but it took its toll on him as many cracks could be seen forming over his body due to pressure.

He and the others monstrosities survived because of their resistance to fire, magic and sudden impacts. Pressure, while also not being normally capable of killing them, was capable of stopping them and incapacitate. Seeing that her attack worked Seryu used her other hand that started to vibrate at incredible speed to cut the only joint she could at this time, cutting off his left arm.

She wanted to keep pressuring him but at this moment the other enemies reached her location making it impossible to continue in the same way. Jumping back at the biggest speed possible she called out.

"Koro, go forward!" And so the giant mass of white that was close to her(he was slower than her after all so he took a bit longer to get there) transformed its small arms into big muscular ones. Using them he pushed himself off the ground and like a bullet hit their opponents. The first one to get close enough to him was the crab one, using one of his hands he managed to take a hold of crab's arm and used him as a mace to knock back the others throwing him in the mix as well before he could retaliate as the crab one's arm has regrown.

The empty humans ignored the fact that they were being knocked back and the sounds of cracking that could be heard from their bones preferring to aim at Koro and invocate magic circles, launching a barrage of all elements towards him.

Thunder, fire, ice, earth, wind and even light bullets were thrown towards Koro knocking him back and damaging him badly as a lot of his body was damaged. Seeing this Seryu was not worried as she knew Koro could take much more and still not feel much of anything.

And she was right as Koro managed to go right ahead fully ignoring all those attacks even when pieced of him was destroyed he did not seem to really care as it just grew back anyway.

PUNCH

PUNCH

PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH

PUNCH!

A rain of punches was what greeted those empty humans that could do nothing but defend themselves. Koro went berserk throwing as much punches as he could in a blood rage as to dish out all the pain it felt by their attacks right back to them.

PUNCH!

A punch suddenly hit Koro on the side making him be thrown back a great distance, a chunk of his side fully caved in. When he looked to see who did it he saw another one of those monstrosities, the shrimp. His claw was not made for cutting anything, it barely even opened to be fair, but it was unimportant in face of the capacity that he had. The shrimp monstrosity had a punch that could compare to a missile in impact power and the light energy circulating those claws could accelerate his punching speed even further.

He truly could fight against most low high-level with no problems.

Koro seeing this tried to run towards him to finish him off when he saw that the empty humans decided that attacking him was useless so they aimed at something, or better saying someone else, Seryu.

Koro was enraged seeing this. NO ONE HURTS HER ON HIS WATCH. Last time she got hurt so bad, so freaking bad that she almost died and he could do nothing. Not this time. Ignoring the Shrimp bastard, as well as the other two monstrosities that were approaching, Koro jumped to the middle of those empty humans in hope to break their formation.

He managed to catch one of them by the head and squish it between his fingers but the others managed to jump back before any new attack connected.

BANG

A shot was made, penetrating the head of another one of the empty humans. Seryu had her 'normal' hand turned back revealing from her wrist a gun barrel. Even her normal arm was quite special after all, many little tricks were added so as to her always be ready… even if she preferred her canons and explosives.

"Tch! Oy, dumb heads, aim at her and kill the bitch. We will stop this monster." Was what the Shrimp said, the Crab was with an irritated expression on his face looking at Koro while the Big Mouth was just letting droll roll out of him as he seemed oblivious to his surroundings, his mind mostly gone as instinct ruled his movements.

It was at that instant that thunder started rolling all around them, a clear sign that the battle on the other side was getting more dangerous. Seryu was trying her damn best against those empty humans, their barriers were too hard for her metal ball to break in one strike and when she tried to go for a second one she was bombarded on the other side by the other 3 would rain magic on her. The best she could do was focus on defense and wait till Koro managed to disentangle with those other villains so as to help her. Maybe for 6 could give her the edge she needed.

Koro, on the other hand, could not move towards her even if he wanted to. The Shrimp had absurdly good eyes, using them to predict his movements and intercept whenever he wanted to move towards her. Meanwhile, the Big Mouth managed to bite one of his arms and started eating Koro bite by bite. The Crab one ran straight towards his belly so as to slow him down as much as possible.

No matter how much Koro wanted to advance towards Seryu he simply could not go there.

It was at that instant that things changed yet again. The thunder that was in the area started to diminish quickly, Seryu managed to look at the cause and saw that the Sister was redirecting the thunder away from the area.

'Good call' was what Seryu thought. All that electricity would make fighting become that much more difficult as they could not move freely for fear of being electrocuted. Now she could fight much more freely and so she turned back to face her opponents.

But

Just as the situation changed once for the better it changed again for the worst.

Seryu heard shouting on the other side of the field and worry started coming on her mind when she heard 'steal my prey'. She turned to see what happened and seeing that the Sister was de-

'Mommy save me. Mommy did not move.

Daddy, please save me! Daddy was in the mouth of that thing.

Someone, save m-'

'No, this was no time to think about the past. You need to focus on the present, Seryu Ubiquitous!' was what she thought when she saw that the man with the light sword had copies of himself and one of them was approaching Okuyasu's back.

She would be the hero this time, she would not let others die in front of her.

"Koro, help Okuyasu now!" She said to him, and thanks to their link he could hear her voice no matter what.

Koro quickly changed directions and, as those monstrosities were focused on not letting him go in one direction when he went to the other side none managed to bar his path.

BANG

It was at that moment when she got distracted by Okuyasu's situation that one of those empty humans managed to launch a wind blade strong enough to cut her 'normal' arm.

'It hurts, it hurts, it hurts' was all that Seryu could think as the arm was connected to her nerves so she felt the pain of losing an arm again.

Bad memories started flooding her mind, memories of that night so long ago that marked her forever.

But, she would not let herself be taken by those thoughts. She trained hard, she fought hard and finally reached a place where she could stand beside her hero as his heroine.

She recollected herself in time to stop a magic bullet that was aimed at her head.

The situation for her was getting worse by the second as she only had one arm now and those monstrosities decided to abandon their fight against Koro and take advantage of his absence to finish her off.

The situation was terrible, there was no longer a choice.

"Koro, **BERSERK MODE!** "

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I just want to point out, this is a battlefield and not a one-on-one match. Getting shot in the back or betrayed is as common as it goes. Skin Bolic was a mercenary working for Iscariots and due to his sacred gear, there was some interest in his body and gear for future research. The Sister was just too distracted due to dealing with Skin's attacks to notice Bao on her back.**

 **Next chapter will come out in at most 24 hours so wait and see how I finish this battle.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed and sorry for taking so long, I was too distracted making some chapters for the future. I already finished chapter 58 and am working on the 59. Yes, this fic is FAR from over and I intend to see it to the end.**


	34. Chapter 29

3° person P.O.V.

"Koro, **BERSERK MODE!** "

At that instant, a surge of power was felt throughout the whole field. The originally white mass of destruction went still for an instant, then he started to change.

His fur turned blood red, his body, previously round, turned muscular and grow to a 5 meters tall being and his originally round face gained a more canine appearance.

The Sister's project may be the masterpiece of the homunculi department to normal homunculi, but when Koro is on this form he is the absolute best that they ever produced for destruction.

A weapon of mass destruction that carries in it the same skill that was the trademark of the berserker servant.

Mad Enhancement.

And one of rank B+.

"RRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

As soon as the transformation ended he roared as loud as he could, and by loud it means LOUD.

It was so high that everyone in the field could not move due to the pain on their ears, paralyzing all of them for some time. The most affected were those three Bao's and Okuyasu due to their proximity, it was so bad that their tympanum was ruptured and blood started flowing out.

Koro did not think of Okuyasu when he liberated that roar, he just could think of two things:

-Save Seryu;

-KILL!

And that he did. He launched himself five times faster than before towards the monstrosities that were approaching Seryu before. They would not be moving towards her again.

When he landed he first used his hand to catch the Crab by the head and squeezed as hard as he could.

SQUIIIIIISSSHHHHHHHH

The Crab one had his head squeezed into a bloody pulp, brain matter and bone pieces falling across the ground. With one movement he was thrown into Koro's mouth.

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH

Tree bites were all it takes to be swallowed whole by Koro. But it was not enough to satiate Koro's rage. It was far from enough.

The Shrimp tried to punch him with all his power, but the result was that his own claw's carapace broke while Koro did not feel a thing. Surprise showed in the Shrimp's face, and that surprised face was what stayed as his last expression as Koro backhanded him in such a forceful way that the upper part of his chest was sent flying separately from the rest of the body. Blood and bits and pieces of organs flew everywhere

Seeing this and feeling despair despite his low intelligence the Big Mouth one tried to bite down Koro's arm, but if before he could manage to chew it right away now he could barely scratch Koro's fur.

Feeling this 'fly' trying to bite him Koro lifted his arm that Big Mouth was biting and decided to show how someone should really bite.

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP

This one was a bit harder to chew as his flesh was quite hard but it was eaten all the same.

It was not enough.

It was far from enough.

Koro saw that there was no longer any enemy around him so he jumped towards those last few empty humans. They stood no chance. No magic could invade his body and he would move as faster than sound, making detecting his movements by sound alone impossible.

With one punch he smashed the first one in the ground in such a way that all that could be seen was a crater. He followed it up by using both hands to catch more two and used them like a kid does when he is making a small ball of paper, eating this 'snack' after it got as small as possible.

The last one was caught on Koro's hand as well, but before he could be killed the empty human decided to go for self-destruction as this way he might wound his opponent, which he succeeded as he managed to destroy Koro's hand… that was regenerated in the following instant.

More

It wanted more

More bloodshed

More meat

More fight

More destruction

More

MORE

MOOORRREEEEE

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

As he started searching for more he saw that in the distance, on the burned corpse of one of the empty humans something was growing. It was Bao. He had put his cells into the body of all those empty humans long ago to, in case of their death, use them as fertilizers to grow more bodies.

A wild grin appeared on his face, with many, many rolls of pointy teeth on it. A new meal/enemy was there.

Koro jumped with all his strength, reaching such speeds that many sonic boons happened one after the other.

CHOMP

Koro did not wait for Bao to finish forming and with one bite he devoured him and the corpse whole. He started looking around, hunting for more prey, when

PSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

He started liberating a large amount of steam. So much so that his entire form was clouded by it.

After a few seconds, the steam dispersed showing a downed Koro in his small form. Anyone that looked at it like this would not associate it with the monster of carnage that was running throughout the field a few instants prior.

Seryu seeing this could only release a "Tch." Before she too passed out.

The only one in the field right now that could move, even if barely, was Okuyasu. He tried to stand up, but due to his ears being busted as they were he could not get balanced at all. After he failed to get up after the third time he started dragging himself to Seryu to check if she was okay.

He would not let someone else die in front of him. The image of the Sister dying because he failed to detect that bastard was engrained in his head.

That will NOT happen again.

As he approached her he saw that she was with many broken ribs and that her mechanic arm was destroyed. That was not a good thing, but so long as she was not dead it did not make a difference for his power.

" **THE HAND** " Saying that he pressed his left hand on Seryu turning back her time to the point where she was no longer wounded. (He could do this only for those who were alive so that is why he did not do it for the Sister)

After all her injuries recovered she started stirring up and after some time she managed to wake up again. She started moving her mouth, probably talking something but Okuyasu had hurt his ears badly during Koro's roar earlier he could not hear anything.

Seeing that she was trying to communicate Okuyasu pointed to his ears and shake his head indicating that he could not hear a thing. Realizing this Seryu make a surprised face for an instant before she nodded comprehending the situation, she then took a small syringe from one of her pockets and injected him with it.

He did not like that, needles are SCARY.

"Ouch, what you are doin… hey, I can hear again." Okuyasu said happily, almost jumping out of ecstasy of hearing everything around him once again. Being in complete silence was NOT good, honestly, he got a whole new respect for those who had to live like that. Those were true mans of valor... or woman he won't judge.

"I'm glad you liked it. This thing here is phoenix tears, we put them into these syringes because this way there is a much lesser chance of them breaking during a fight, these are made to survive without breaking after all." Seryu said with a smile. She always liked to help her companions in her fight for JUSTICE after all.

Okuyasu seeing that the mood was better now and that there were no more enemies, decided to ask.

"Hey, why didn't you activate that Berserk mode thingy before? It would have helped a lot you know?"

A sad and self-mocking smile appeared on her face as she shook her head.

"I did not do it because it is an emergency mode. It forces him to liberate all magic and power that he accumulated with time in one instant by using my own vitality. Unfortunately, it doesn't last very long as I don't have magic to supply instead, so whenever we use this mode it only lasts around 20 seconds and we both get out of commission afterward. I can only talk right now due to you healing me, but I can't even move right now properly." She explained. It made sense, such a power would most likely have drawbacks.

"I get it. So you are like one of those super-heroes from TV when it is about this?" Okuyasu asked, failing to notice that she seemed to exude an aura of pure happiness for being called a hero. That was her dream, after all, being a true hero of JUSTICE is what she would do… and marring Castiel. What? She is a girl too.

"I-I hope I was more of a hero. I still have much to learn, but I will try my best." She said excitedly and with a bit of embarrassment.

"Arere, good for you to think like that."

And with that the mood got a whole lot worst a whole lot fast.

That was not the voice of either Okuyasu or Seryu. There was only one person in there that had such a voice and way of talking.

Bao.

He appeared again, rising from the crater that Koro had punched and splatted one of the empty humans. The scariest part was that despite just getting up he seemed to already understand everything that happened.

That was because he did. All cells from Bao could store part of his knowledge and whenever one died part of those cells would spread through the air making it so that other Bao's could understand all that the dead Bao understood.

Okuyasu stood up in front of Seryu as he could not allow her to get in the middle of this fight anymore. As she said she could barely move at all so she was defenseless and he would not let her be killed.

As he stood there looking at Bao he started circulating his Ki and trying to use that trick that one of his masters had taught him long ago. It was to release a small amount of Ki throughout his body in a way that it would bounce back from any object he touched, basically a sonar. It was not quite practical for him yet as he needed to focus on it to work and stay in the exact same spot, his masters all could use this while moving no problem.

This move is called Seikuken. (writer note: this is a modified version of the Seikuken from Strongest Disciple Kenichi universe. It is not the same but has a greater range)

Using this he noticed after a second that there was not only the Bao in front of him but also two more inside the crater finishing being 'born' and five on his surroundings, all places where there was enough 'organic matter charged with energy'. He was being born from the one that Seryu shot before and from the corpse of the Shrimp, but considering how slow he is being in being born in the Shrimp one the cells on him are probably quite a few.

This is bad news as he himself is not in his full power as he needed quite a bit to NOT be toasted by Skin's thunder armor. He had round 60% right now so he needed to be careful.

"This is a problem. I was supposed to eliminate witnesses AFTER you guys got killed as they would work as cannon fodder, now I have to do all the work." Bao said with a sad tone, showing sorrow even, but not for his companions but for the extra-work that he was going to have to do. His mission was to get his enemies and allies killed so as to retrieve the corpses of the enemies without the priest that ordered their death knowing. That was what doctor Blank ordered to him after all, the capture of the bodies of all those interesting, enemies and allies alike.

For the doctor it was all for science, for Bao it was just a mission.

Hearing this words from Bao made Okuyasu very mad. He always hated this kind of scumbags, and Bao was proving himself to be a prime example.

Bao then started walking towards Okuyasu while caring a light gun and a light sword. It was slow at first but it quickly started turning into a sprint and when he was around ten meters away he jumped to get Okuyasu attention so as to make him miss the other Bao on the far right with a gun aiming for him.

However, thanks to the Seikuken Okuyasu was aware this time, and he would not let him get away with it.

Using his right hand, he scraped away the space between him and the Bao on the far right, forcing that Bao to be launched to close proximity. Seeing himself suddenly in front of Okuyasu he did not get surprised, instead, he used his light sword to try and cut him while also going for a low kick so as to hit his legs. This way he would impact Okuyasu in some form and that would raise the chance of a successful mission.

Okuyasu, however, was not so easy to deal with. He may have stopped the Seikuken (he moved after all) but he still had extremely well-honed instincts. It was those instincts that allowed him to jump above the said kick while using his right hand to scrap away the light sword and Bao's head in one move.

Seeing as he eliminated his first opponent Okuyasu did not get excited about it. He knew that the one that was still in mid-air was closing in so he turned around and with another swipe of his hand he managed to bring that Bao close and using his left hand he executed a palm strike to Bao's head, making his brain turn into mush and killing another one.

BANG

"Shit, that hurts you fuckers!" Okuyasu said as he got shot in the back by a light gun from one of the other Bao's that was a far distance away. It didn't hit any serious point, due to dumb luck mostly, but there were two problems. The first was that now he would start losing blood and the second problem was that Okuyasu had a distance limit of 30 meters of space that he can scrape to bring his opponents towards him. It was due to a lack of the necessary Ki and magic capacity; he simply did not have the energy necessary to make it have a greater range.

Seeing no other choice, he did what he could and started focusing his Ki to make one strike that would end that opponent while maintaining himself on a position that he could protect Seryu.

Staying in front of her he started focusing partially on a new Seikuken and the rest of his energy was to make his next attack. A good decision since he felt one of the Bao's trying to get out of that crater to shot him.

BANG BANG BANG

Three shots were made by that Bao that managed to wound his back, all aimed at vital spots that would not overly damage the body afterward, like the inferior vena cava and liver. Okuyasu managed to use small Ki blasts from his left hand to disrupt the path of the bullets, a much more economical way to deal with this as it did not spend that much Ki to do it. (Writer's note: these Ki blasts are equivalent to mana bursts, but the scale is much smaller and they spend much less making it possible to use by those that do not have gigantic reserves of Ki)

Finished charging his power on his right hand he raised his hand to the air and shouted.

" **DESTRUCTO DISK** "

A disk made out of concentrated Ki appeared on his hand, it was inspired by a bald human that could fight side by side with the strongest warriors from his favorite anime. He launched it towards the Bao in front of him and it almost instantly managed to cut him in half.

The Bao behind him, thinking that it was a chance as his opponent was with his back to him went for a dash and cut aiming for his neck. The speed of the dash was amazing, but it was still to slow as Okuyasu did not even need to do anything but crouch and move his fingers.

CUT

That Bao was also cut in half. The momentum of his dash was so high that is body kept coming and it ended up right in front of Okuyasu, splashing some blood on his shoes.

"Grulgh… no, keep it together. You can let yourself vomit later, but now you have to be strong." Okuyasu said with his face turning green. He may be killing them now, but it was just because he knew there was no other choice as he normally would much rather just imprison them.

Now there was only one more enemy. The last one that finished forming on the crater.

"This is hard. It seems that the mission will fail, good job for that girl in especial if it wasn't for that weapon of hers you would all be dead. Congratulations." Was what the final Bao said while getting out of the crater. "It really is a shame. If we weren't in this field I would have won in the end, really a shame. But hey, thinking on the bright side I managed to get you both too tired to do interfere afterward." He said with a smile *fake* on his face.

"Ha, I am still great here. As soon as we get out I will go and help the others." Okuyasu said with a smug smile on his face while reading for one more strike. He just had roughly 35% of his Ki now, but if h could meditate a bit and rest he could go back to 70-80% no problem.

"That would be a problem. If you do go there you will possibly ruin the mission." Bao said with a troubled face. Then he seemed to have gotten an idea as he joined his hand and got a bright smile. Normally smiles would show happiness, savagery, even evil intention, but this one did not show any of these. It was artificial as if it was all an acting. It unnerved anyone that saw it. "And if I do this."

Then, something unexpected happened.

The upper part of Bao's body that was on Okuyasu's feet suddenly exploded in spikes perforating Okuyasu's leg and torso in many places.

"Gargh." Was all the sound that escaped Okuyasu's mouth as he gurgled on the blood that was threatening to get out of his mouth. The pain was all-encompassing, but he held on. His Ki going into overdrive to keep him awake and sustain any damaged organ.

"Oh, it was weaker than expected. But again neither I or I had a lot of biomass and mana when we were born so getting this much is good enough." Seeing the questioning look on Okuyasu's face Bao decided to explain. "You seem confused, but it is not overly complicated really. I am a person that was fused with a coral and as such can grow indefinitely as long as there are enough materials to sustain such creations. But it was not all we can do, by stimulating the mana we carry on our bodies at once we can turn into literal corals that can pierce through the flesh of most with no problems if there is enough mana this spikes can be much bigger and resilient so that it can pierce much better. We did not do it earlier because you never had one of us close to you time enough for this effect to work, but you let your guard down as you let one corpse near your feet for too long." Bao then started walking towards Okuyasu normally, no hurry or anything as he knew that this level of blood loss would make anyone enter in shock in a question of seconds. "Now if you could stay like that without moving anymore I would really appreciate it as it would let your body to have fewer wounds. And now to finish out the girl." Seryu could not do anything seeing Bao approaching, she was too weak and just keeping conscious was her absolute limit.

However, what Bao did not expect was how tenacious Okuyasu was. He was trained by 'monster' for a long time and would not die to something as insignificant as this.

When Bao reached the thirty-meter distance from Okuyasu, while ignoring the spikes that tore through his flesh, Okuyasu swiped his hand forcing Bao to get in front of him… right in the middle of all those spikes.

Bao could not do anything as the spikes entered him in much worst places that they did Okuyasu. Blood started leaving his body as it started to shut down, but Bao did not seem to care in the slightest… no this is not exactly right. It was not that he did not care in the slightest as he did feel bad for one thing, that he did not complete the mission.

After Bao died the death arena finally stopped working as there were no more enemies to face. So a girl that could not move and was closed to pass out, a small *dog* and a man covered in wounds suddenly appeared in the middle of the street while a group of policemen was investigating the place for the explosions that happened.

One of the cops seeing them started to panic as he ran to them. Seeing their states he did what was right as he tried to call the hospital when-

Someone chopped his neck, making him pass out.

"That will not be necessary. Now what do we have here, this girl seems to have exhausted most of her vitality but she just needs to sleep. And for you, it seems that there are quite a few wounds on your body. Well, it seems that you are in luck as I just happen to be a decent doctor. But you already know me well, don't you agree my disciple." The man that said that was wearing a hakama and had black hair with eyes that were very close to pure white.

With the last vestiges of Okuyasu's mind that were awake, he felt a mix of extreme dread and relief for the one that appeared. After all, he was beaten to the point of near death and the one that was there now is none other than one of his masters, Akisame Koetsuji.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I said it would be a fast update.**

 **There are still two more fighting sequences and I will be doing the same for those, two chapters each with fast releases between them. I know that this style of writing must be annoying or displeases some of the readers but I am an complete and uther ammatheur that knows no better than to do it this way. I deeply appologize if it irritates any of you and I appreciate any and all reviews that are constructive, especially the ones that point out some parts that you don't like about my story.**

 **That is, if it isn't pure haters that don't even read it properly or just have too much time on their hands. I don't have to listen to those that just want to offend me and my story, like 'hyperlunatic' or 'Anti Bashing' two reviewers that don't show any intention to do anything except bashing me because I said anything against his favorite character.**

 **And in case there are others that still remain reading this fic but don't like my bashing of Issei or Rias, don't worry because I will alliviate the bashing on them and make them much better characters. I just did that to point out how in the beggining of the canon story they were not that great, Issei was an open sex-offender at the start and Rias was a spoied ojou-sama that didn't think of her house as she should but with time they gor better in canon and so is on my fic.**

 **Sorry for saying so much useless stuff, thanks for reading this fic and untill next time.**


	35. Chapter 30

3° person P.O.V.

Above piece of heaven Elementary school, there were 31 people standing. It was quite the diverse bunch, with 1 dressed in a red yukata and having an eye-patch. From the other 30, half had glazed empty eyes, and the other half seemed anxious and bloodthirst, as if they could barely wait for the 10 minutes mark to come. You could even hear whispers saying 'two more minutes till I cleanse this place of pagans' and even 'saving these kids and sending them to heaven early is the best present ever'...

Yeah.

Truly disgusting people.

The girl in the yukata did not make any indication that she was hearing anything, as she was completely focused in a small magatama that she 'borrowed' not long ago from the Japanese pantheon. It was quite the good stuff as it allowed for some interesting abilities.

Most can't use it at all, but she was a special case. She could use any and all treasures and relics she got her hands on, no one knows why exactly but she could do it anyway.

She looked at the clock and saw that there were only thirty seconds until the time was up. She suppressed a sigh as she knew that if time was up a massacre would ensure, but not one that these idiots were looking forward too. She'd kill them all as she did not approve of the murder of innocents.

She was a thief, not a homicidal lunatic after all.

* * *

As she was waiting the final seconds before a fight breaks out, by admiring her newest treasure obviously, someone finally showed up.

No sooner did the first one appeared the others appeared as well. There was Kuroka, LeFay, Emily and that man holding her future new treasure.

"Finally. I was tired of waiting for you guys to show up." Lugh remarked, getting up.

None of them seemed much happy about the situation, especially Kanda since he left his protection target to someone else to take care of. But he'd be damned if he was not more interested in defeating this girl that almost killed him a few days ago, that humiliation will be squeezed out of existence.

"Yahoo, finally fresh meat!" one of those exorcists screamed before running head first against the closest person to him. His arms got full of fur and his teeth grown to saw like things; his nails turned into claws and he got an extra pair of eyes, even a barbed tail that had a metallic sheen to it.

He was probably one of the ones more eager to face any opponent, it did not really matter who. He just wanted blood, blood, BLOOD.

His target was one of the girls, she did not appeared to have noticed him till it was too late as his claws went right through her neck… or it would seem. The Catch? There was no blood or sound of flesh being cut. Like he hadn't cur anything at all. His eyes widened, instincts telling him that there was obviously something strange happening.

That claim got proven seconds later when a feminine, seductive voice filled with amusement spoke up.

"Where are you attacking, nyaa~~" Kuroka said as the illusion of her faded to reveal that he was actually on the right side of the image that was cut down. The fake-Werewolf tried to turn and attack his opponent, however before he could have the chance, Kuroka moved her finger in a strange pattern and many symbols appeared surrounding the fake-Werewolf. With them, a sealing power surged completely locking him in that position to the point that he could not move a single muscle. Following that, she pointed one of her slender fingers, and from it a black flame filled with Youjutsu's power was released, covering the fake-Werewolf's body, consuming it completely.

All those around had no time to react as, while the sequence may seem like it took a while, it actually had not taken more than 3 seconds. However, the exorcists did not really care that one of their comrades died as they saw death itself as just a way to reach God. It was a gift and they wanted to share such gifts to as many people as possible.

Ignoring all this, Kanda reached out for Mugen. With one pull, he released it from its scabbard and took a stance while pointing it directly to Lugh. She, in the other hand, focused her entire mind in Mugen. 'It is beautiful' was what passed through her mind.

The others do not stay idle, either. Le Fay started chanting some spell that would take a while to execute, and Emily took out of a pocket one of the Death arena crystals. Though, she never got a chance to use it as Lugh released one first. Lugh was never the patient type and she knew that those bloodthirsty idiots would probably try and go after the kids on the building... if the fight took place here, of course. There was also an added bonus for the one that uses the crystal first so she took her chance.

She had one of those crystals due to she being an ex-Judgment member and them ways carried one or two with them.

* * *

The field this time had a different appearance, it looked like a coliseum with many pillars all around them with all painted in a tone of red and white.

The monstrosities decided to simply transform with many shapes and forms appearing, if there was something of special note, it was that there were 5 balloon-man in this group that immediately floated to the air before anyone could stop them.

Emily immediately released her wings and went straight to those balloon-man. Her instincts informed her that they would be a headache if left be. She summoned her **Trap of Argalia** and accelerated using reinforcement magecraft to go as fast as she could. It would be a battle against time for her as she knew she needed to go and help to defeat Lugh as she was most definitely the biggest danger in this place.

Kanda did not wait (or want) for any support, he was independent and considered himself as on his own side, the others being inconsequential or extras.

He dashed towards Lugh with his highest speed, not even caring much about those enemies he passed by. One of those, a monstrosity with rocks covering his entire being and his eyes glowing a strange green light, managed to stand directly in front of Kanda's path and he wanted to use his superior physique to constrain Kanda enough for the others to kill him.

"Useless."

That was all Kanda said before veins spread around his eyes and his pupils turned into three dots (writer's note: NO, this is NOT Sharingan). After that, his speed and power dramatically increased, like a super soldier on steroids. With one swing of Mugen, the body of the Stone man was cut in two equal halves without any hassle. The creature gave a dying moan as its life vanished from its eyes. Kanda did not even slow down due to it. The only reaction of his was calling that techniques' name " **Ascending Flower** "

Ignoring the others around him, his dash was even faster, so fast that most others could only recognize him as a blur. In less than three seconds, he appeared in front of Lugh and made an overhead strike aimed at bisecting her, however she raised her own sword to meet his. The clash that followed? It erupted like a volcano into an intensity that forced him back as his sword was repelled.

Lugh simply gave a small smile as she admired this reassure of hers, Hrotti was truly a wonderful blade.

Kanda did not seem to care one bit about the fact that he was pushed back, on the surface at least. Inside, however, he wanted nothing more than to win and seeing himself being thrown back that effortlessly? Whelp, that was beyond irritating. Part of him imagined that kid Castiel laughing at him for how easily he was knocked back, he would beat him up later. He concentrated his energy on himself to get ready for this fight as he knew it would be quite a close one.

* * *

Meanwhile, those empty humans were being led by two monstrosities, one with a body full of scales and a third eye on the middle of the forehead and another one with a body with half on pure fire, and the other half with pure ice covering it.

They were heading straight to the small blond girl in the back. She did not seem like much, her power felt like around high mid-level at the very most and she was mumbling something the entire time.

Believing that victory was assured, they went to eliminate her at once, and at that instant, the chanting ended.

"Aberrant magic, **Destructo**." With a move of her hands, she liberated many small balls of blue that seemed completely non-threatening. They were all sent towards those going towards her and those empty humans all ignored it as they didn't feel like anything more than a low-class attack.

It is true that it was low-class magic, the type that anyone could learn easily. What NOBODY could have known was the amount of fine control necessary to combine multiple low-class spells as she did.

Combining water with high amounts of pressure, turning what should occupy 2 m³ to 10 cm³, was not an easy feat. Especially if the water is then heated to over 300°Celsius.

Now a question, what would happen if some water that is under high temperature and pressure suddenly lost all said pressure at once?

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

An explosion, that's what.

This was one of LeFay favorite magic's that she developed with Rin-sensei's help (she must never let Rin know that she developed many personal spells based on anime, they just have so much imagination for possibilities, this one is based on a Magi's character named Titus).

This magic was very easy to cast and cost very little, to the point that she spent less than 3% of her magic reserves to reach a result that normally would request many times more.

Now, the numbers against her were just 8 empty humans and those two monstrosities, is that the one with elements on the body was not affected, while the one full of scales lost one of his arms and the left eye. This had been due to him being too close to one of her spell bombs.

Now, to finish them off. She knew she needed to go support Kanda-sama and Emily-sama in their fight against Lugh-sama.

Time was of the essence.

* * *

In another point of the battlefield, Kuroka was facing off against the rest of the 6 of the monstrosities. She would like to say that it was going fine and not hard at all, but that'd be a lie.

She first tried a trick using youjutsu to release a cloud of miasma with the objective of weakening them all, but one of them that looked like a skinny being with barely any meat on him... sucked it all and absorbed it instantly.

How the hell did the Iscariots develop a monstrosity capable of eating energy like that was beyond her, and she honestly never wanted to find out.

The others were not idle, either. One of them that had developed a giant arm and the back hunched with a strange glow to it, advanced towards her and used his hand to try and give a punch straight at her. Kuroka managed to jump upwards above him in such a way that she avoided said strike, a good decision as the instant that the strike hit the ground...

SIZZLE

...The sound of melting could be clearly heard as the ground was both pulverized AND reduced into a pool of acid goo. Her nostrils flared with distaste at the smell coming from it, but she suppressed those thoughts for the time being. She also noticed that the hunch on his back got a bit smaller, though it quickly began growing to its former size again.

It was probably something that constantly produces acid that was released by that arm in contact.

'Approaching him is bad, Nyaa~~' was what passed through her mind.

Other two of the monstrosities approached her as well. Both had small legs and arms, but a really big torso with no head but eyes and mouth in there. The only real difference was that one was red and the other was all blue (Writer's note: pun with One Piece unintended). Both of them had giant maces charged with the light element and, as they took a mysterious pill before advancing, their bodies were brimming with concentrated light power comparable to low ultimate-class.

They both tried to launch a devastating attack by swinging their maces towards Kuroka, but she managed to put up a barrier in front of herself so as to not be wounded by them.

CRACK

Even if her barrier was strong, sadly for her it could only resist for a very short time, though it was enough for her to get away from those two. They exceeded her largely when it comes to pure brute power. Not only that but those two maces were vibrating at extremely high-speeds making them eliminate what was around much faster.

It would be problematic, but not so much that it would be impossible to deal with. She was strong after all, strong enough to be the head of one of the divisions in the Tower after all.

The only one that did not do anything was one full of pores all over his body. He was looking in the back, waiting for a perfect opportunity to complete his objective.

Kuroka opened her devil wings (she WAS a 'stray' devil after all) and took flight. She was not that good at it but at least she could go up enough to not be overwhelmed. She took a deep breath and started using her senjutsu to connect herself to the flow of life energy around her. She then took out a small mystic code with some roses on it, it was a personalized mystic code she had developed while thinking about how to better use her senjutsu.

The idea came from a show she watched some time ago while lazing around after a passionate nigh… okay, a full week of non-stop sex with her boyfriend (and it was not even their mating season). It was a simple but very interesting idea, it just came to her that if she is connecting herself to the flow of life energy around her she might as well use it in a more direct approach.

And what is the best way to use excessive life energy? Make plants grow of course.

By directing the life energy around her to the mystique code she managed to make a small seed in it to grow. It started small, looked like a small and simple garden plant.

It was anything but that.

Quickly, it started to grow and grow till it turned into a big man-eating flower that dove directly towards the first target. The skinny one that could absorb magic. He was the most troublesome as he would interfere with most attacks she could release as he would simply suck it all.

The flower had a radius of 2.5 meters and was a particularly special species that internal acid could dissolve almost anything. It was found in some of the more desolate parts of the underworld, surrounded by small mountains of bones.

As it descended towards the skinny one, he did not seem to be bothered by it as he was swallowed whole by the plant. Thinking that it was over, Kuroka decided to aim at some other one, but she could not move her mystic code as she felt an anomaly in it.

When she looked at it more clearly she realized what was the problem, that skinny one was eating the flower from within. The plant was losing vitality faster than Kuroka could replenish it making it so that it started to wither and die even as she pumped more life energy on it.

"This is bad, nyaa~~" Was what Kuroka said as she felt that those others that were approaching. She got no choice but disengage her mystic code when she saw that one with the giant's arm closing in reading a punch.

That mystic code of hers disengaged of the devouring flower and it almost instantly got itself eaten by that skinny man. He really was a bad match-up for her, most of her attacks depended on either youjutsu, that he could devour, or senjutsu, that he also could devour. Probably just close combat could affect him, but she was not proficient in that at all.

Her Shirone could deal with him better than her, not that Kuroka would ever let this man get anywhere CLOSE to her little sister.

If he tried, then out came the claws and away would his head go.

When she was starting to despair, a flash of light passed close to that man, followed closely by Kanda that was swinging his sword at anything that appeared in his path.

CUT

The enemy that was troubling her so much, the one that she did not know how to deal with, died just like that.

Kanda did not even notice him as more than a thing on his path, so he cut it. No looks to see if it was dead or not, just impatience to get to Lugh as fast as possible.

Seeing this, Kuroka did not know if she should laugh or cry. In the end, compatibility is just that important in any fight (writer's note: just putting it here so that no one thinks I did something too stupid, this is a battlefield and getting shot in the back when you are not paying attention is normal. Also, compatibility is important, imagine a man that is the best CQC expert fighting someone that can fly higher than he can jump, no matter how much stronger you are the one with a natural advantage has an advantage).

No matter, now she had to deal with just three of this monstrosities and be done with I… at that instant she felt something. As she was deeply connected to the flow of life in there she clearly felt something akin to a taint in those empty humans facing Le Fay.

They felt quite close to the energy signature that man in the back with pores all over his body was releasing. If it was like parasitic beings she faced before, she had to move fast so as to help LeFay. She clearly felt that there were three signatures for each of the empty humans and if she is not fast to deal with them they all could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"I hope the others can hold on till I can go to assist them, Nyaa~~"

* * *

Emily was not happy.

She was not happy... PERIOD!

She managed to deal with the first of those balloon-man very easily. He was weaker, slower and could not maneuver nearly as well as her.

The problem is that the other five did not wait for her to deal with them, immediately fusing into one single creature. It had no legs, big arms with five very dangerous claws, a barbed tail, the torso were fused with what the head would be with a big mouth on the belly that looked a jagged saw instead of teeth. Its whole body looked like raw meat and it had two appendices on the shoulder that worked as two large shields.

But, the most troublesome fact was that its whole body had many small fake eyes that could release light beams, and they all were aimed at her. The good side: she clearly felt that its energy was dispersing faster than it could replenish, meaning that this form was limited at best and probably would either kill or wound those monstrosities when it was over, regardless of what she would do. The bad side? She could not wait that long, she needed to go help Kanda before Lugh started taking him seriously or he could die.

* * *

LeFay was not having an easy time either. Her enemy was mostly those empty humans, they may not seem like much but the difficult part was that they were focusing on highly destructive spells.

She could defend up until a certain point against them, redirect their attacks and counter them, but there was a limit due to the number of attacks aimed at her.

There was a total of 8 of them, and they learned their lesson. While before they were tightly packed together, making them a good target, now they spread out to attack her from many angles. Even when she managed to get one strike right she ended up facing a wall of either ice or fire

At least she managed to deal with that one with scales and a third eye. He was releasing some energy beams from his third eye, however, she had managed to defend herself even if barely. She would have been overcome if not for that flash of light, that was most likely Lugh-sama using her speed, followed by Kanda-sama that cut that one in half before he could even react as he was moving too fast and came from a blind spot.

She would have to properly thank him later, but right now she must focus on one thing: how to deal with these ones in front of her.

* * *

Bao was waiting, he must wait till the perfect chance as he knew that he was the 'weakest' of the ones in here, but he must complete his mission.

He suddenly saw a flash of light pass through his side. "What was th-"

And that was the last thing he thought before being bisected in half by Kanda.

* * *

"Stop running and fight me." Kanda screamed in absolute fury. He only got that first strike before Lugh started running around the battlefield.

He did not want to lose sight of her, she was HIS opponent after all. If someone should defeat her in here is he and he alone… or so were the thoughts flowing about inside his head.

However, there was no progress in the least, as all she did was run and run, going in the middle of the others battlefields and putting him in the path of some of those other flies.

Losing his cool (not that he had much of it from the start) he released a technique of his.

" **Triple** **illusion**!" And with that he tripled his speed, quickly reaching Lugh.

She looked surprised seeing this as there are very few that can reach her speed. Kanda went to a stab directly aimed at her body, but Lugh managed to put Hrotti in the way.

SMIRK

Kanda knew she would do that, he never counted in that attack connecting in the first place. Instead, he took advantage of that instant to use his left leg to kick her. She coughed up some blood and was sent flying away.

Why did everyone was saying that he needed back-up anyway? He was clearly strong enough to deal with her.

And that was right, in personal power alone he was her match.

In personal power that is.

She got up and dusted her clothes, not worried in the slightest that she was wounded.

It was just the start after all, and she still had much to use.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Same rules, comment and review what you think could be donne to make the storry better. The next chapter will come out within 24 hours, so please be patient.**

 **And this fighting sequence will not be particularly long before it ends, it will just have three more chapters. One for this fight and two for Castiel's fight.**

 **Hope to see you guys again.**


	36. Chapter 31

3° person P.O.V.

The situation was far from optimal.

That was the thought that ran through everyone's minds, regardless of their current situations.

Le Fay, much to her displeasure, wasn't making much of a progress against those empty humans and that fire and ice monstrosity. Those empty looking humans showed themselves to be quite unpredictable and forced her to keep on her toes, while that Ice and fire monstrosity was like that character (Todoroki she remembered his name being) from that hero show she once watched, My Hero Academia.

Mental note, go and watch all three seasons again, that show was great in her opinion.

On another front, Kuroka was dealing well with those three monstrosities, though she felt she could have been doing better, but because those blue and red annoyances could heal way too fast for her attacks to make much of a difference and they guarded that giant armed one, she kinda got herself pinned on multiple flanks. The giant armed one focused the most on attacking her, too, and thanks to its support she couldn't get in close enough to deal with the major threat here.

People say that cats have nine lives, but she may not have any left if she didn't think of a way to finish these fuckers.

Meanwhile, Kanda was facing off Lugh, but as much as he loathed to admit it, the man knew he was in some deep shit. It was clear that she was not going all out as she was still using just two of her treasures (the swords Hrotti and Crocear Mors). If she used her full out he could die at any moment.

So, in the end, it fell into the hands of Emily to break this deadlock.

And for that, she needed to defeat this thing.

She got calm, but serious when she realized that. It was like a switch had been flipped in her mind. This enemy was troublesome at best and goddamn hard at worst. She tried to approach him several times already but each and every time he released some of those beams and she had to retreat.

Like one big game of keep away, it felt like that was what was hapening between them.

It was infuriating.

She took a deep breath and started to plan the ideal path to victory. She needed to finish it fast, but not get too injured or it would impact her capacity to help later.

She decided that there was only one conclusion to what to do, defeat him with pure raw power. She could not sneak one of her light threads on him and any weak light spear is destroyed too fast.

She knew this was the best, and probably the only way but that did not make her like her next action anymore.

She put her hand on a pocket inside her jacket, looking for an item. A gift she received on her eleventh birthday from Castiel, it was shortly after his first mission and he was paranoid so he managed to get this little present for her.

Beans flown in her direction non-stop, she could not stay in place for more than two seconds or she would die full of holes. She managed to find that present at that moment, but she was reluctant in taking it out.

"Kyaahh~~~~" She heard LeFay's scream, she did not manage to defend properly and some flames managed to burn her left leg. Thankfully it was nothing serious and she could still move normally, but the fact that the attackers were pressing her was the truth.

That was the final drop for Emily, she could not and would not let anything happen to any of her friends… and Kanda… probably (she was not a fan of his, he was not a peoples' person at all).

The item she took out was a gem made by Luvia, a Topaz the size of an egg. She put some of her mana in it and before it released its power she thrown it at her enemy together with a big light spear. The spear seemed much more menacing so it was the main target to the light beams, but some did aim at the Topaz stone.

To deal with that she used a very thin and almost invisible light thread to make sure that she could manipulate the stone in ways to guaranty that it would not be damaged before it reached its target.

And reach it did.

At the moment it impacted that monstrosity the stone broke. From that point where the stone broke, it forced the creation of large amounts of rock to surge. It was like that monstrosity got a new limb, one that was thrice the body size and did nothing but weight him down. So much so that-

CRASH

he fell to the ground. And the fall was not pretty either, the 'shield' from the left side (where the stone grew) was locked by the stone that was still growing. Also, the left side of the body as a whole was mostly locked in stones while the right side received most of the force of the impact, generating some wounds on it.

'Chance' was what passed through her head. She dived to the ground and went full speed towards that monstrosity from the front. She was going really fast, but the enemy, even in his condition, counter-attacked her with a large beam of light out of his mouth using most of his light energy.

It was the only way to get her to die together as he knew that, after going in this form and exhausting itself, death would be an inevitable result.

Seeing the beam coming towards her at high speed she opened her right wings and closed partially the left ones so as to force herself to turn to the side and get out of the way, but the beam was too big and managed to reach her anyway.

"Kyaahhh~~" she got multiple burns across her body due to this attack. If the monstrosity could smile it would be doing just that as this sort of wounds would debilitate her enough to make her much less of a treat to the others.

The monstrosity then noticed something, that Emily was not flustered by what happened.

What did that mean?

Emily looked at him and gave a cold smile, and from there she pulled her hand downwards as if she was pushing something down with force.

STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB STAB

Multiple small but sharp light spears fallen from the sky towards the monstrosity, screwing him multiple times and turning him into a monstrous hedgehog. The monstrosity could barely survive for an instant before Emily herself followed the attack by using a mana burst to accelerate enough to pierce him with the Trap of Argalia.

PIERCE

With that, the monster died and she won the fight. Emily lowered her weapon and heaved a heavy sigh of relief, feeling the aftereffects of so much adrenaline in every bone in her body. Even her Wings ached from so much use. Nonetheless, she got happy that her plan succeeded, at least. Her plan was not so difficult to understand in fact, after releasing the gem she knew the monster would fall to the ground.

Meanwhile she would release a few dense but small light spears from the back of her wings to not let him notice her moves (a common misunderstanding is that the attack must be executed from the hand, the kind of magic can be executed from any part of the body but it is harder to release it this way). From there she would connect a few threads from her hand to the spears but let them float in the sky.

When she started flying at high speed the light spears high in the sky would move together with her and in the moment she pushed her hand downwards they would be pushed down.

This way, even if she could not attack from the front, she would still manage to attack it from above. A pincer attack so to say.

And it succeeded as a charm.

Now there was one less enemy for her to face, and more important she could go and support the others.

Seeing this situation as such she went straight towards LeFay, as she was hurt earlier and she was not good in dealing with enemies in multiple fronts at the same time.

Setting her decision, she went there to help. Luckily enough Kuroka was also heading that way. Now time was the key, they had to defeat those six and then go together to face off against Lugh.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kanda was not having a good time at all.

That was putting shit mildly.

Lugh was just using two swords, precious as they may be, and her natural speed enhanced by her magic, but she was on equal grounds to Kanda using Third Illusion.

Third Illusion was a technique that consumed life force and in exchange allowed for him to gain more speed and strength. It was a double-edged sword as he could not keep it activated for too long or risk dying early.

But there was no choice.

Lugh was much too fast. So much so that he doubted he could have lasted if he did not use Third Illusion.

He had been trying to attack from every possible angle with his sword and its copy made by Second Illusion, but Lugh was still fine.

If he tried to go for a sweep from the left she'd use Hrotti on it to stop him from going any further as he would have to use all his strength just to not get knocked away. If he tried to go for the right she would use Crocea Mors to force a change of gravity strong enough to make the swing speed to drop, opening his guard.

He could sense that it was far from all she could do if her uncaring and peaceful face was anything to go by. He still remembered that she used the sandals of Hermes to get much faster in their previous fight. She still might have some more treasures in her, making him cautious.

Seeing that his situation was not progressing he decided to try and change his tactics.

He attacked the left side again, and again she used Hrotti to stop him. But this time, instead of forcing himself to stay on the spot he went with the flow by jumping to the side. With that, he was thrown to the left more than three meters, more than enough space for him to try some of his ideas.

An interesting fact is that the Yu family was once a subordinate clan to the Himejima clan before changing its alliance. This led them to know some ommyouji and exorcist spells from them. Kanda was also trained in them, but never appreciated or liked to use it as he always preferred to fight in close range with Mugen.

But desperate times call for desperate actions, and this was one such time. Form his wrist he used a small formation that carried many items used for those techniques, and from this small formation he took out a few such items.

The items he took out where small talismans with different symbols on them. He aimed the first one (a yellow talisman) at her and said.

"Lightning Bird Swarn Talisman!" And with that, the talisman was converted into many small birds made out of lightning that moved at a speed no lesser than his own.

Lugh managed to cut more than half using her swords, but the others managed to enter her guard and attack her. Unfortunately, her yukata was a mystic code made by the Tower designed for defense, making it difficult to cut or damage her with any elemental attack. The good part is that the impact could still be felt and the effect was enough to stun her for a few instants.

Plenty of time for Kanda to use some more of the talismans. Taking out four of them (red, blue, light green and brown ones this time) he aimed at her releasing the spells.

"Four Elements Disorder." This time all four talismans shattered and with this it was like a mini-apocalypse started on the aimed region. The wind started cutting in all directions, the earth opened and closed as a maw, water surged and fallen like daggers and fire started rising from the ground.

This was the strongest spell he knew how to use, and he could not use it for long due to the spender of energy and for the cost of the talismans needed for this one. It was like he was exchanging gold for each attack, not unlike Rin and her Jewelcraft.

The end result was an explosion that covered the whole area. While he waited for the dust to settle Kanda took a deep breath to steady himself.

He doubted that this would be enough, but it must have at the very least wounded her.

PIERCE

A sword pierced Kanda on the back, going all the way through.

He did not have time to react due to the suddenness of the attack aimed at him, worst is that he has no idea how it was even possible as he would have felt if she used teleportation and he also was highly capable of sensing invisible enemies.

But in this case, it was all useless.

As the sword was taken out of his body he saw red splashing out from the wound.

"That was a good one. Do you have more of those talismans?" Lugh asked as she appeared out of nowhere, literally nowhere as it was like she just surged in the air.

Kanda jumped ahead to further the distance between the two of them. Taking out one of his talismans he put it on his wound to stop the bleeding. After that, he decided not to use that previous attack again as he could not let her out of his sight again.

The situation now was dire, he was almost out of options while she seemed to be taking it easy. She barely suffered any wound up until this point and what she suffered was healed thanks to another little treasure she got from the church. It was normally used by the Pope, but he was rarely ever in any danger so he 'probably' wouldn't mind. (She was on the kill on sight list from the church after stealing the holy rosary).

* * *

Meanwhile, Emily and Kuroka finally reached LeFay and were fighting together against those empty humans. It was not that difficult as the two made the empty humans need to divide their attention to target them, a big mistake since the instant that the pressure on LeFay lessened she started counter-attacking. She was using a barrage of magic strikes from many different schools of magic that she learned under Rin.

The empty humans were largely underprepared to deal with such a force, and to make the situation better the monstrosity made of ice and fire decided that it should target one of the new enemies.

He chose to attack Kuroka since she was on ground level and seemed quite tired. He launched a wave of flames towards her, which was answered with a wave of her hands that liberated a cloud of miasma that canceled the flames.

Snaring at this the monstrosity ran towards her, hoping to 'kill the bitch', but it was not meant to be. As soon as he started running he stepped on a hidden magic circle that liberated tens of earth spikes, penetrating him in many places.

Smirking the ice and fire monstrosity ignored said spikes, he was made of elements so how could physical attacks influence him?

Well, LeFay never hoped to finish him off with that. Sparing a glance at his direction she launched one ruby and one sapphire, showing one of her especiallities.

As soon as those two gems were in position, they broke and activated the magic that she herself programmed on them. It was a little thing that she called **Inferno**. It was a mixture of ice and fire magic that improved one another. The location of the monstrosity was perfectly divided into two halves, one half started freezing over at extremely high speeds by removing all heat from there, including the fire that the monstrosity was made off. But where the heat absorbed went? Well, that is what the flaming side was there for, all the heat from one side was transferred to the other and the best part is that the direction of this flux was constantly changing so any defense to it became useless.

And now there was no more trace of that monstrosity.

Looking at it, Emily felt shivers down her spine. LeFay may be a sweet girl on the outside but inside she is just as vicious as her brother. That is probably why she was Rin favorite disciple.

Turning back to the empty humans she knew she had to act. She started using her light threads in high number to cut them down, but they were evading them most of the time. She managed to remove the arms of a few of them but it barely seems to matter to them due to their apparent immunity to pain.

Meanwhile Kuroka, now that she no longer had to counter the flames from that monstrosity of ice and fire (rest in pieces on hell), was doing what she considered the most important action. To eliminate all the empty humans as fast as possible before whatever or whoever was growing inside them finished their growth. She attacked first and foremost those that were the most full and closer to 'explode'.

She surrounded herself in multiple clusters of black fire and launched them like they were 'honing missiles' due to tracking the enemies that she identified as enemies by the use of life energy. They reacted by launching magic blasts from all sorts of elements against those flames, but all of it was pointless due to the fire simply absorbing the magic launched at it to grow even larger.

In the end, she managed to burn to a crisp 3 of them. The others were about to get burned as well when the thing inside them exploded, and from inside a total of over 23 Baos came. They all were as naked as the day they were born (which in this case was a few seconds ago). Looking around those Bao saw the flames approaching and two of them walked towards said flames. Their bodies expanded by turning themselves into corals and in the end, two of them died in exchange for the flames Kuroka launched to disappear.

Emily and LeFay had an urge to vomit when they saw those Baos, seeing someone hatching from inside someone else's body was NOT something people like to see. But it was not time to worry about that. LeFay turned to her two friends and said.

"Emily-sama, Kuroka-sama, could you two defend me while I prepare a new spell?"

Kuroka and Emily nodded, they knew that for this sort of situation the best option was a mage spell since the effect against multiple enemies, in this case, was the greatest.

Following that both Kuroka and Emily started doing whatever they could to protect LeFay. The Baos started launching multiple volleys of light bullets at the two, but Emily was defending by using light threads woven in a large shield, and whenever a bullet was launched from a tricky angle that might affect LeFay, Emily modified the format of the shield thus defending her friend. Kuroka decided to go for the offensive by launching many magic blasts from different schools and launching seeds at the enemy. The seeds were the most dangerous since when energized by life energy they grew quickly creating a green hell full of carnivorous plants and poisonous cactus.

It was, however, far from enough. The Baos simply did what they had to do with an impeccable teamwork. When one was close to being devoured another would launch an attack that would create the opening necessary for the one in danger to escape, following that another two would move in to destroy the assailant. Such scenes were repeating fast and the most disturbing part was that when one of them go too wounded to help they would be caught by the others and used as meat shields like it was natural.

As this continued the energy reserves from both Emily and Kuroka started to diminish. If this continued the two would be incapable of keep fighting and would die. They already got a few bullet holes on them, on non-lethal areas since they managed to deflect them properly but the fact remained.

When things were about to get to bad for them to deal with LeFay finished her spell. A magic circle of over 100 meters appeared in mid-air above their enemies, starting the magic.

At the start they did not feel anything, then a slightly heating was felt, and before they could react it was too late.

They all died from dehydration.

This is a spell that works like a microwave machine. It liberates microwaves of high-intensity at their enemies that can evaporate all water in their bodies in less than 5 seconds. It was an interesting use of electric and sound-based magic that she thought of some time ago, and excluding the casting time was a veritable killing machine.

This time BOTH Kuroka and Emily got shivers down their's backs. The feeling that LeFay was scary was cemented in their heads when they saw how this large group of enemies all died under a single spell of hers, and their feelings only got worse when they saw she sitting in her broon and flying above the mummified corpses of their enemies and with a smile said.

"Let's go, Emily-sama, Kuroka-sama. We still have a mission to do."

Yep, scary chick. Don't get on her bad side, at all.

* * *

With Kanda and Lugh, the battle was going overwhelmingly in Lugh's favor. Even though Kanda was capable of fighting her properly he was running out of energy fast due to using his **Third Illusion.** On the other hand, Lugh continued using Hruti and Crocear Mors to fight it out with him on equal terms, she was in fact so relaxed that she was even paying attention to the fight of the others.

When she saw that group of Baos appears she started feeling desperate. She could not remain here facing off against this idiot that was carrying her future treasure. Knowing that she got to act, and the urgency of the situation she activated her sandals to jump back as far as possible. Seeing this as a chance Kanda advanced, believing that he was pressuring her.

He was wrong.

She took a crouching position and started purring absurds amounts of energy at Crocear Mors, revealing her actual level of power at this instant. She was a low ultimate-class.

Kanda did not care, he would simply execute his mission and finish his enemy. Unfortunately, for him, it was not meant to be. When he was less than two meters from her she swung Crocear Mors liberating a wave of gravitational energy that launched him far away while also pressuring his whole body to unbelievable degrees.

" **Fierce Tiger!** " Was what Lugh said while executing this attack. It was one of her trump cards and one of her most useful for when she was being hunted down due to her 'playful ways'.

Kanda was in immense pain while in the middle of that gravitational maelstrom, but he bit down any sign of pain he felt. He would NOT let his enemy have the pleasure to know that they hurt him. Instead, he decided that he no longer had a choice, he would have to bet his life if he wanted to defeat this enemy.

As he was about to use his last trump card the fighting on the other side finished, and his 'unnecessary allies' appeared to help. As soon as they approached, Lugh stopped her attack and sat down on the ground. An annoyed look on her face.

Strange.

This was what was passing through the heads of Emily, LeFayand Kuroka seeing this. They know Lugh for a long time and she was not the type to give up like that. Especially when it was a life or death fight, she would never simply give up. Seeing this situation the others approached slowly, waiting for a retaliation or sudden attack.

It never came.

Instead, Lugh simply looked like she was troubled by it all.

Emily decided to talk first.

"Get up, Lugh. We are here to fight and kill you."

Lugh looked at her and slowly put her hands in the air, at the same time the death arena was undone and the five of them returned to the top of the piece of heaven school.

The four looked around, not understanding what was going on at all, but then it was Lugh that talked.

"I give up, I want to talk."

And those words made the other four open their mouths in disbelief (except Kanda, his face probably was not capable of showing such emotions) and as one all of them thought:

What

The

FUCK?!

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Yep, I did that. Lugh will be alive and kicking, she is just so fun to write that I could not just kill her now. Also, I hope you guys enjoyed this battle sequence and know that the next one will probably be coming out in about 5 or 6 days time, who knows really it will depend on my mood and when I finish writing chapter 60 (yeah, I am writing chapter 60 and the ideas are still coming fast so know that it will still take a long time for this story to conclude).**

 **Bye, review and PM me if you want to share ideas or opinions.**


	37. Chapter 32

Castiel P.O.V.

Right now I am going together with Miku to the top of Towa Tower to face off against that shitty fatso and Serenity. I honestly would prefer never to have to face such a poor girl, but this is inevitable.

No matter how unwilling I am to kill such a pitiful girl if she stands in my path I still will have to do it.

With such thoughts in my head, I noticed in the corner of my eye that Miku was trembling slightly. I could understand why no matter how much she tried to stand strong here there still is a chance of her dying after all.

Releasing a small sigh, I decided to talk to her. Feeling a bit nervous is good but too much is not a good thing in this situation after all.

"You doing okay?" I asked.

She was startled for me suddenly talking to her. It was clear to see that she was not expecting it.

"O-Of course I am! I am Miku Okami and I am strong." She said and started giving that same smile of before.

I FUCKING HATE THIS SMILE!

"Stop that." I said, managing to control my anger for that smile.

"Stop what exactly?" Miku asked, still smiling.

"That fake as hell smile you are giving. It may manage to fool some, but it ain't fooling me. If you are worried or scared you must say it out loud, there is no point in keeping it to yourself." I explained my opinion to her.

The answer was that smile growing even bigger and she saying.

"I have no idea of what you are talking about."

"*sigh* you know what? Fine, keep lying to yourself as much as you want. But if you are feeling scared remember that I am here to protect you. And I WILL do it." With that, we continued our walk.

No further talks happened, but I heard she say in an almost inaudible whisper.

"Liar."

A few minutes later we finally arrived on the Towa Tower. In the terrace we found a few empty humans (I will put them out of their misery soon, it is better to die than live like a zombie slave), three weird men (probably some of those exorcists that were transformed, but their energy signature is especially weird), the fucking fatso that I WILL KILL, no questions asked, and last there is Serenity wearing a mask and a cape covering her whole body.

"Oh, you arrived. Good, good now we can start the experiment." The fat doctor said. I reacted by summoning Jirachi and taking out Kupriotes and took a stance in front of Miku so as to better protect her. "Do you still intend to protect this failure of a 'goddess'? Why bother with it?" he asked in clear confusion.

"Because it is my mission and I decided personally that I would do that." Was my answer, for the surprise of those around me. I don't really understand why is it so hard to understand that I am a willful person that, if I make a decision, I will follow it through to the end. That is how I was raised, to follow what I decide as long as it is not detrimental to the Tower.

"*sigh* And I had my hopes that someone from such a steamed research institute would be more than an ignorant brat. No matter, you will still die here today." He then turned his eyes to Serenity. "Useless bitch, go and do the one thing you can do right and kill that man."

Serenity did not hesitate. As soon as she heard the order she directly pounced in my direction with a dagger in hand. I sent a mental order to Jirachi to intervene only if someone from the outside tries to intervene.

If someone must take her down is me.

I sent the deathmatch crystal to the middle between the two of us. In the ensuing flash of light, all those that were in the terrace were taken to the arena.

Before I could analyze what the arena was like Serenity arrived. She went straight to a pierce to my heart using her dagger, but I lowered my sword in the right angle to deflect it to the side. Not being bothered by this fact she took advantage of the momentum to pounce forward and use her foot like a scorpion pincer aiming at my thigh.

Seeing this I managed to raise my leg enough so that her foot faced my knee, my reinforced knee, instead of my thigh. This way she ended up not getting to impact me nearly as much as she would have liked. Following up she let herself go so as to get a bit distance between us again before she started planning her next attack.

This may all have seemed complicated but it actually lasted no more than 4 seconds to happen. This is just how fast this all can be.

Taking my breath in perfection as Kuzuki-sensei taught me I cleaned my head of all distractions. Miku would be fine for some time due to Umbreon and Jirachi and if there is something that can bypass them I will be capable of feeling the powerful vibrations.

Now, all that is the enemy in front of me.

I decided to not activate any curse or my personal Gandr armor (using Gandr throughout the surface of my body) due to it not work on Serenity. Instead, I started activating some blessings that could work wonders for this situation.

" **Ability Boost** , **Body Strengthening** , **Iron Skin** , **Strengthen Perception** , **Haste** , **Mental Enhancement** , **Flow Acceleration**." With this plus the reinforcement that I could execute with my mana reserves, I was more capable to deal with Serenity than before. But even now I don't have 100% sure of my winning chances as when I looked at her memories of the past I saw how much she trained and her physique is very strange from the start.

This fight can go either way.

No time to waste, I need to kill her now, before that fat fucker over there have any ideas about making those puppets of his joining in. I used my augmented physical power to launch myself as fast as possible towards Serenity and she responded in the same fashion.

We started exchanging attacks at our max speed and power. I had the edge on the power department, forcing her to deflect my strikes, while she had the edge on the speed one as each attack of mine was answered by three of hers. We went at each other so fast that we stopped caring about the blood we were both releasing from all the cuts and wounds we could not deflect properly.

After no more than twenty seconds of this we both decided to get some space between each other to take a 'breather', but not before I delivered a strike with more power than the others by using both hands and charging Kupriotes with a lot of mana (almost enough to break the sword); and Serenity, while flying away due to my strike, released many small golden specks of dust from her fingernails that, while flying at me, turned into very thin but powerful needless that managed to pierce my body.

Shit this hurts. How the hell she managed to get Dragon Beard Needles? This things are fucking rare and are great assassination tools, one can become as thin as a hair but when it penetrate the body it cannot be removed without taking out a chunk of meat.

Seeing no choice, as I knew this needles were on some of my acupoints (Writer's Note: acupoints are the acupuncture points on the body that, when pierced, can block the flow of mana and energy.), I took them and ripped them out of my body. With this, I had 29 small holes in my body now and was full of cuts as well.

I am in a very sorry state, but I still have plenty battle capacity.

Serenity is the same. Her clothes are cut all over and blood is flowing from many places that I managed to cut. The difference is that instead of holes in the body she got an arm that is likely fractured due to my last strike.

We started looking at one another, analyzing, strategizing, making a thousand plans to then throw them away and refine some of those ideas. And in this state that a new development happened.

BANG

One of the empty humans DARED to attack Miku with me here. Thankfully Umbreon defended her in time, but it just means that I cannot ignore them anymore.

Sending a mental message to my two Cosmoems they teleported me to the middle of those humans. I have just about three seconds, which is the time needed for Serenity to reach Miku before I have to teleport back to where she is.

Plenty enough.

Activating Gandr all around me I released a wave of it so as to curse all of these empty humans and weaken them. Some tried to attack me with magic or some weapons, but they all failed miserably as I started teleporting all over the place with the help of Cosmoems and hacked 5 of them in half. Did I mention that my familiars are amazing? Well, they are.

I would have pressed forward but Serenity was getting too close for comfort so I teleported to the side of Miku just in time to put my sword in the path of Serenity's dagger.

CLANG

Our two weapons collided sending sparks everywhere. This was too close, if I was a second slower Miku could have died, even if Jirachi had made a barrier around her.

Our stare off and the battle continued.

* * *

Miku's P.O.V.

What the hell just happened? It was less than a minute ago that we reached Towa Tower. That fat bastard started talking, and before long this assassin jumped in to kill me. But Castiel defended me. ( _Liar_ ) He then started fighting against that assassin and it was an amazing fight, so many attacks traded so fast, it was fascinating.

Then, one of those empty humans decided to sneak attack me when Castiel was fighting and I was distracted watching. When I felt the magic approaching I knew it was too late for me to defend.

Is this how I am going to end? Dead because I listened to one of those _LIARS_ and was distracted by him? Is this really it?

But then something unexpected happened. The moment when the attack was almost touching me a small dog jumped out of my shadow and created a barrier to protect me.

Since when is such a dog in there? Who is this little one that is protecting me?

And it was one thing after another because after that attack Castiel disappeared out of thin air. The assassin took advantage of his disappearance to advance towards me.

This time I will not be taken by surprise. I immediately started using my song magic to create a sound barrier around me in all directions. It is extremely powerful and capable of protecting me against anything that is high high-class or lower, more than enough.

But reality likes to prove me wrong every time. The assassin reached the barrier and initially did not manage to penetrate it, but she had something on her sleeve in a literal sense as he took out two small metal balls and throw them both at my barrier.

Before they reached the barrier the touched each other and exploded liberating multiple needless and things like that at extreme speed. I tried hard in that barrier, but it was not enough as it collapsed after an instant.

The dog jumped in front of me, and a little kid that I saw Castiel summon did the same. (Is it possible that the dog was from Castiel to defend me?... No, it cannot be right. Castiel said he would protect me and he is a _LIAR_ ) Both of them used magic shields to defend but they barely managed to defend against it all.

Now they both are exhausted and the assassin is approaching me again. In my head, I thought 'don't worry little ones, I will protect you' and went to liberate a new sound barrier.

Huh?

Why is my voice not working?

Is it the backlash from my magic being broken earlier?

What do I do?

Is this it for me?

Dying alone because I decided to go with that troglodyte, a fitting ending for a life like mine.

As I see that dagger approaching centimeter by centimeter I see my life all over again.

The kids calling me names;

My mother explaining to me what I am;

My life in the sect;

The first time I met Suzaku;

The fight we had in that I won (a guilty pleasure of mine, remembering hitting his head makes me a bit too happy);

The talk we had later in that we agreed to be friends;

Our time together;

That mission that changed it all in that I was abandoned;

My time in the middle of that scary forest;

My return to the sect in that I discovered what that being I would call Darling really was like;

My return home;

Training for being an idol;

The competition and the first time I met the producer;

My work as an idol in the start;

That party that all those disgusting pigs saw me as just piece of meat;

My stolen first kiss;

The talk with the manager;

My discovery that as long as I have my voice I don't need anyone else;

My work as an idol since;

I guess this is it, my life was one bad spot after the other. And now I am going to die, but I suppose it was inevitable. My only worth was my voice and now that I can't sing I am worthless.

CLANG

What?

Why did he come back and protected me again?

Now that I can see him up close I see all the blood dripping out of him, so why is he still protecting me?

As soon as the attack failed the assassin retreated and I could see him more clearly. He was in front of me again, he was protecting me, he, he, he –

Did not lie.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was dealing with those empty humans so as to not let them attack you anymore." I said to Miku without looking at her, my eyes firmly locked in Serenity. "Also, sorry for not telling you of Umbreon. I wanted to be extra sure that you would be okay but feared that you would refuse to keep him by your side." I explained hoping that she would not bitch out about this later.

Serenity was glaring at me from a few meters away, it was not a big distance and considering our speed it was no different than being centimeters from each other.

Suddenly a shout came from the distance.

"What you doing, your incompetent bitch? Finish him off already. Don't you want the cure from your curse?" the fat bastard said.

Hearing this Serenity trembled a bit, she knew this was her chance of a normal life. She knew this was her best chance. She knew it was her only chance.

And so she attacked.

Heavy, her strikes now are even heavier than before and her speed much faster as well. If it was not the many blessings and me activating my **field** at the last moment, I would be long dead.

How is it that she is getting faster and faster?

Suddenly my eye started reacting to something, mine mystic eyes properties that allowed me to see someone else's sin was reacting to something. As I was looking at Serenity I saw all the sins that she carried, but I also saw that there was something else there. A second soul that carried even more sin.

But the surprising fact is that I realized that both of the souls were resonating and partially fusing and with each passing second the fusion got more and more pronounced.

I must stop it now. I don't know why but I feel like if I allow this to go on will spell disaster for all of us here.

Realizing that I was fighting against the clock I used all strength I had to survive the barrage of dagger cuts and needless that were being thrown at me nonstop. I knew I would only have one chance to make this attack work and that it might even be suicidal of me to do this, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I was defending with all my capacity and then used one more ability that I developed after years being trained in the border between life and death (berserker being the response to most of those that got closer to death).

" **Limit Release: mental!** " With that, I flooded my brain and nerves with reinforcement and any power that I could spare so as to perceive the time in slower motion. It was like everything was in that movie 300 as everything suddenly got really slow-motion.

Now that I could react better I saw that there was no way that I could attack her right now. Her attack may seem aleatory but there is literally no opening at all and overpowering her right now is as possible as get Rin to give Luvia an honest compliment. Just not going to happen.

So I did the only option I could see, I let her get a partial victory.

PIERCE

I let one of her blows reach my side, perforating the place where my stomach normally would be. Key world is normally. During all those trainings I learned long ago how to get some of my organs out of their normal positions and in this case I draw my stomach to a few centimeters above his normal position.

Whit this I had her dagger locked and this gave me the chance to give one good strike at her. Her mind seemed to have cleared when she perforated my stomach if her eyes widening was any such indication. I would not give her time and with one swift motion I put my sword above her head and pulled it down with all my strength to cut her down.

I won.

I beat her.

'A little girl crying for warmth, wanting some contact with anyone but all she finds is death. Tears stain her face as she walks alone looking for someone while crying out. A sad and lonely girl. A girl that just wants something besides her.'

I- I can't.

When my sword was less than a hair away from cutting her neck, it stooped. I could not do it.

Damn. Where was all my conviction went? Why can't I just kill her and be done with it?

Why am I so human at this times?

"Why?" was the first word Serenity said after all this time that we were fighting.

"I know of your past." She released a gasp, she doesn't know how or what I know but it terrifies her all the same. "I can't kill an innocent. I just can't."

"B-but I killed so many. How am I an innocent? Papa, mama, the village, my dog and all the others that I intentionally or not killed. How can you say that I am innocent?" Serenity asked in the closest thing to a shout she has done in a long time. I know as I saw a lot of her memories.

"Because you are. You carry sins, a lot of them, but you never wanted for this to happen. You are just a victim here, not the criminal." Was my answer. Shit, blood started dropping out of my mouth due to the dagger in my guts. I managed to avoid a fatal wound but it still is a wound.

"But I am-" Serenity tried to continue but was stooped when a giant white hand swatted her away.

I turned with flames of wrath (figuratively) on my eyes as I saw that the fat bastard seemed annoyed by this all and ordered one of those freaks to partially transform and swat Serenity away.

"It seems like the plan failed. Oh well, the results will be the same anyway so it doesn't really change the outcome. Finish them all."

And with those words from the fat fucker, those three abnormal monstrosities started transforming.

The second round was about to start.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Same rules, next chapter within 24 hours.**

 **And did you guys enjoyed? I don't know what you people think of me saving Serenity, I originaly intended to kill her off but after doing her back-story I honestly started feeling pity for her and this was the result. Also, for those who did not read the 'Miku's past' chapters she had good reasons for not trusting men in general, but deep down it is obvious that she is desperately looking for someone that could do that.**

 **And just a heads-up, this magic I put here are all from Overlord, fucking amazing show, and if you are curious about the effects they are all on the wiki page of Overlord. Also, the 'Limit Break: Mental' was a technique from Climb, a weak normal human so it isn't really impossible for others to learn it, all they need is to face killing intent enough to make them believe they will die and still not give up completely. I think Berserker can do this very easily, the tricky part is not killing Castiel.**

 **The weapons used by Serenity are from Duolo Dalu's tang sect.**

 **Yep, I did some massive research for this all.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed, untill next time.**


	38. Chapter 33

Castiel P.O.V.

As I saw those three… beings transforming a chill went down my back. How can they transform a human being in such a group of things?

The first one was the most 'human' if it can even be said that. He got over twenty meters tall and had a skin that looked closer to porcelain. His arms and legs were much too big and every step he took was unsteady and unbalanced, his torso was black while his arms, legs, and head were all white. He exuded a strange aura like he was incomplete right now and his powers were fluctuating a lot. (Writer's note: imagine Giant Akumas from Dgray Man)

The second one was even stranger. He had a head looking like a Buda's statue head, but all golden; his arms were chubby and small, but what should have been his legs actually looked identical to a purple worm of over 30 meters. (Writer's Note: it is based on the bankai of Kurotsuchi Mayuri from bleach)

The final one was… different from the others. He was somewhat close to a human, if you ignore that his body is all golden and that he has grown at least 40 hands with many claws and pincers in the mix. He looked somewhat like one of the Buddha statues you can find in a temple... if you ignore the fact that his head looked like an octopus' head.

How did they manage to turn humans into this?

My dumb folded face must have been very easy to read as that fatso started explaining, not unlike all James Bond villain.

"Impressive, don't you think? I may think my work is superior but this is still an impressive feat of genetic manipulation and alchemy. You must be wondering how did they manage to turn into forms so much bigger than normal, but the explanation is simple. We managed to develop some magical formations that could entrap the biomass that is absorbed so that it can be used in the future for transformation. It is somewhat like a biological internal space that deposits meat for future use." The fat mad scientist said.

This all is interesting and all, but it doesn't change the facts that I am going… to ki-… wait a minute, when he said meat, what did he mean by it?

"What exactly do you mean by meat?" I asked.

"Nothing much, I just emptied some non-Christians swine that was undeserving of God's blessings and turned them into useful tools to our glorious cause." He said with a smile that would not be strange in a saint, but he was as much of a saint as Bluebeard was.

"You killed people, destroyed everything that they were, turned them into mindless slaves AND used them as mere ingredients… you are the monster here. But don't worry, I will rectify the cosmic mistake that is your existence." I said with the purest venom in my eyes.

He is the sort of being that does not deserve to have ever existed. I may not be excessively devotee (I was raised by people that I completely and utterly believe could make most Gods run and hide with a mere glare after all), but anyone can see that this… thing is against any God.

Raising my sword, I felt my blood being drained due to my many wounds. I already used my dose of Phoenix tear, but it was not enough to heal me from all the wounds in my body. Regardless, I would do what I must and that is killing this fat bastard.

Using my speed, I went directly to the one I believe will give me the less headache (his energy levels are the smaller after all), the one that looks like is made out of porcelain. Let's call him Doll as he, sort of, looks like one.

However, before I had the chance of actually getting close another one jumped in my path. It was the one that had many arms and an octopus face, let's call him Squid. I decided to change directions and go for Squid then.

Squid used his many arms to release a barricade of punches, each one with around one ton of pressure. I immediately released my Field once again in the most widespread way so as to identify where those chaotic attacks were coming from exactly. I am so lucky that when my Field is only for detecting it can have a much greater radius.

I evaded his punches as much as I could, but it was not enough as some of them managed to graze me. Normally a graze would not be much, however, when what is grazing you is the equivalent of a truck it can hurt a whole much.

As I advanced towards his body I failed to notice that Doll was moving in a heretic fashion, not unlike a shaman calling for the rain. At the end of those movements a giant magical circle surged on his back and from there a rain of light bullets followed.

SHIT!

I gave up on my attack against Squid as I had something more important to do.

Teleporting to Miku's side I grabbed her hand (why is she flushing a bit?) and then called closer both Jirachi and Umbreon so that I could teleport again.

I need to keep a distance from this rain of bullet so as to keep Miku's safe. And with that, I used Cosmoems to teleport to somewhere on the edges of the arena, here the barriers that Jirachi can use should be plenty enough.

That I just so happened to teleport close to Serenity was merely a coincidence.

After asking for Jirachi to set up his defenses I teleported to close to Doll. I must stop this rain of light as soon as possible.

As my teleportation was above his head I decided to go with hacking his head.

CLANG

Damn this thing is durable. My Kupriotes is incapable of actually breaking his skull, just managing to make a superficial cut instead.

Taking advantage of his face I stepped on it and used it to steady myself for my next action. After getting there I knew I had less than a second to take advantage of this situation or he could beat me away from this spot.

I decided that I should change weapons. Kupriotes, while reliable and easy to use, was simply not enough now. Seeing this I took out Gandiva.

Feeling me on top of his head Doll directed the rain of light on my direction in a concentrated blast. I immediately jumped far from my position and started accumulating energy for an attack most likely to finish him off.

This is the best course of action as I need to eliminate him as soon as possible and get the hell away with teleportation before those other two giants reach here as they are on the way.

Concentrating all energy I have in me right now on my left arm to well beyond my shoulder, to the point that I deactivated some of my blessings to give more energy for this one, I got barely enough to complete this attack. This is just one step down from calling Gandiva's true total power.

"Licht Regen!"

PIERCE

PIERCE PIERCE

PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE

PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE

A devastating volley of light arrows was released by Gandiva. They are individually weak, but are still of much higher concentration than the ones used by Doll, thus they are not affected by his arrows in any way.

All those arrows perforated Doll's large body making him look like a Swiss cheese. As he was falling dead I finally touched the ground and asked Cosmoems to teleport me away from that spot as those other two monstrosities were almost upon me and I too was exhausted after using Litch Regen.

After teleporting I took a moment to breathe. Seeing that they would not arrive close to me that fast I stated absorbing mana from one jewel that Rin made for me to this sort of situations. It will put a strain on my magic circuits and it will hurt like crazy later but it is the best option for this situation. Unfortunately, it will put quite a strain on my magic circuits and I only have two of these gems (Rim is stingy).

"I must warn my brother that the white model still needs some adjustments if they are to move that slowly they may as well be useless. And their firing power still can be worked to make it more practical, this here is far from enough." The doctor was mumbling while taking out something from his pocket. "Now, for the next experiment."

He took out a small vial of a strange purple liquid and started drinking it. I don't know what it is for sure but it looks just like that antidote that they showed Serenity when she was a child.

"Hoh, so you guys DID make an antidote for Serenity's poison. Why did you not give it to her?" I asked, knowing that his type is the one that can't keep himself from gloating any success he has.

Case in point-

"Of course we managed to make an antidote, temporary as it may be. It took a while, but after two weeks we did manage to make an antidote. That unruly and idiotic monkey Cristaldi and his way of acting made it so that we had to work extra hard on it. 'Did you make it yet?', 'You must help that innocent.', 'Make something worth of a servant of God and make the antidote for her'. Bah, altruistic idiot. He didn't even realize that he was trying to destroy what could have been a turning point in our war just because he wanted to 'save' a wrench." He then took a deep breath as if calming down and continued. "However, something good did come out of that altruistic fool. We got a useful tool and some wonderful samples, truly wonderful ones."

A chill went down my back in the next moment as I started hearing the sound of munching. As I turn to see Worm was EATING those dead empty humans as if they were a snack.

It was disgusting.

IT then turned to my direction and started liberating a purple cloud that was encompassing all directions.

"THIS is the result of our research on that wrench's body, we now can produce a much stronger version of her poison to be used by us, the TRUE saints and messengers of God! Hahahahahahaha!" He started to laugh maniacally, probably believing in his superiority and assured victory.

The cloud washed over me and the result was… nothing at fucking all.

"Huh? B-but this should be enough to kill anyone!" He said in an 'almost' hysterical way. And I say almost just to be gentle, he had his eyes so wide that it seemed about to pop out (shame that it didn't).

"I am completely immune against all poisons or anything negative against me. Neet, don't you think." I said with a small smirk.

"G-go and kill him! Kill him NOW!" The fat bastard started screaming towards the two giants.

The one that got closer first was the Squid. I shoot some arrows at him, see the effects and how well they work.

They failed, miserably so.

As I saw my arrows being unable to perforate his body I knew a headache was coming. From my four weapons Kupriotes and Gandiva seemed to be useless for this, Hruting can't be used as well due to its curse effect (if I go berserk here it would be a bad idea), and the final one is a fickle one that refuses to listen to me more often than not.

And so, taking a line from one anime character that is among my favorites and that REALLY needs therapy to control his tendencies of violence, I will 'beat you to death'.

Cladding my hands in Gandr flames I went towards Squid and started fighting him in CQC if it could even be called that. It was more akin to a human trying to squish a tenacious fly that would not be caught no matter how much you wanted to finish it off (kind of reminds me of Saitama vs his worst enemy, a fly).

As I was circumnavigating his attacks that missed more often than not I was punching him back with Gandr, putting as many curses as I could think off in him at the same time.

" **Tiredness, Laziness, Cowardice, Slowness, Pain, Unluck, Disaster, Failure, Stupidity, Mistake, Blind, Paralysis** " And so I purred all magic I could into those curses. Most would not have a direct influence in his power, as they were mostly mental in nature, but as I piled more and more on top of each other they would make him less of a treat by the second.

I myself am not absolutely sure how I could cast some of those curses, never studied them to be fair, but it was like I had they engrained on my head from the moment I was born.

As I kept using those curses non-stop with each strike it became obvious that Squid was weakening at an alarming rate, it was just a question of time until his death. The only question I had was, how much longer I could go.

Any and all the curses I used were an extra strain on my circuits. They were already hurting like a bitch but I must keep going.

COUGH COUGH

As soon as I heard that weak cough I turned around on sheer instinct to see what happened. I saw that the purple cloud reached Miku and Serenity's location. Fortunately, Eevee was not stupid and decided to change form from Umbreon to Glaceon (his ice form) and so created a wall of ice, but it was not big enough to protect them all.

Serenity was outside of the wall and started coughing blood due to the poison.

That instant I turned cost me, Squid used one of his arms and managed to punch my side, making my left arm bend at an angle that it should not be capable of.

Pain coursed through my body but I forced myself to ignore it and teleported to Serenity's side. I know that it **was** foolish as saving her life cost my left arm, but if I decided to not let her die I will not let her die.

It is just that simple.

As soon as I teleported close to her I used my left leg spirit bone **purity sky king's leg** ability **Pure Sky** to cleanse the area of all the poison. Serenity quickly relaxed as the poison that was infecting her started to leave her body.

Seeing that she was fine I relaxed a bit and then throw her on my shoulders as I teleported to Miku's side.

"Why did you save her? She is your enemy right?" Miku asked, confused by my actions.

"I decided that I wanted to do it and I did just that. I will not let an innocent suffer whenever I can help." I said as I put down Serenity on the ground so that she could recover. Strangely enough, her skin was even a bit paler than before, was it because of **Pure Sky**?

Before I could continue this train of thought I noticed that my time of thinking was up. The Worm was approaching fast and it was clear to see that the ice wall would NOT be enough.

Feeling frustrated I pulled out Hruting and decided that I must use it, despite the fact that it would make me possibly go berserk.

As soon as I put my hand on the sword I felt a sense of exhilaration and wish for battle, the pure desire to kill the beast in front of me.

Seeing my grimace Miku decided to help by singing a song. It was strangely calming and soothing for my body as if the song was made to calm the heart of others.

"Thanks, Miku, this song was beautiful." I said in an intoxicated tone, before reading myself and teleporting to the front of the ice wall. That her face was flushing a bit worried me, was the strain of using that song that much?

As I saw Worm approaching I decided my next course of action. Using reinforcement on my legs and using some of the blessing centered in speed I sprinted toward Worm in my highest speed possible.

I was nothing more than a blur as I used my blade to cut Worm right from the middle, dividing his body into two perfectly equal halves.

There was so much blood in me that I could not even open my eyes properly, but the bad part came right after.

ANGER

KILL

DESTROY

KILL

ALL

MUST

DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Throwing Hruting away before the curse fully consumed me I started to throw up blood. While Hruting was an incredible mighty blade the curse on it is simply too much for me right now.

The only way for me to control it is to use my magic reserves to activate my Skull Spirit Bone. It works up to a certain point, but afterward, it would be useless as I simply do not have enough energy to suppress the mental effect right now.

Now, I am truly fucked. My left arm was broken, magical circuits seemed about to snap and I am losing so much blood that it was a miracle in and of itself that he was even awake. He still has more enemies to face, Squid and about five more empty humans that were protecting that fat bastard, but he could barely move now.

It was at that instant that Miku started singing a new song, one of healing and cure. While she sang I could feel my body recuperating at an amazing pace.

The most important was that my strained circuits were alleviating and recovering in a much faster way than when I use Phoenix Tears. It will not make me recover my mana, but in this condition, I will be capable of using a gem to recover my powers (note to self: ask Rim to not be so cheap and make me more of those).

Now I just need to focus on CQC and continuing the strategy I was using earlier and Squid would certainly die. After him, the others would die just as easily and I will be free from all this shit.

"Tch! It seems like this was a bad day for me." The fat bastard said when he looked at the dead Worm. "Well, that seems to be the only way, initiate self-destruction protocol."

After he said that Squid started to expand in size, turning more and more like a ball in an expansion.

"Hahahahaha. Now this will end you, with this, all the rabble will be eliminated." The fat bastard said as those empty humans purred all their magic in forming a shield and the fat bastard activated a mystic code that reinforced said shield.

Seeing this I noticed that this can be the end, but I will not stop or be defeated. I decided to use that final weapon, the one that hates me more often than not and usually just keeps releasing those red thunders at me.

I DO NOT want to use it, but desperate times call for desperate actions. If it accepts to be used I will win, if not… I hope it accepts for once.

As I put my hand on the space where it was located I felt its pommel against my hand. Strangely enough, I could fell acceptance from the blade, even eagerness if I dare say. It was like it was waiting for this fight and to kill those it decided it must kill.

It was silver in color and had a red base, a sword that was among the most powerful blades of legend. A blade that was regal in nature, made for the one that would be the next king, but never completed its objective.

As I pulled it I positioned myself as I felt the blades effect took place, amplifying my power to many times its' natural capacity. As I put the blade above my head I concentrated my energy I the blade and a beam of concentrated mana was released from it.

And so I called its name.

* * *

Miku P.O.V.

Why is it that when I look at Castiel I feel my heart beat a bit faster? No, no I can't do it again. I will not be mistaken and lied to again.

 _He did not lie._

He is a man; all man cannot be trusted.

 _He did not lie to me._

He will certainly hurt me in time.

 _He protected me._

With those thought spiraling on my head I saw he pull out a new sword.

I recognize that one.

It was the blade that that kid that protected me in the forest back then. Now that I try to remember him, he was remarkably like Castiel in appearance, was it possibly him?

And it was at that instant that he put the sword above his head and a red beam of pure magic energy appeared.

* * *

Serenity P.O.V.

I have nothing left.

Why is it always me? What did I do wrong to deserve this punishment that is my life.

Why must I be always alone?

"Why did you save her? She is your enemy, right?" the target… no, she was not my target anymore. Miku said the truth. Why must anyone care to save me? I am a filthy killer, someone that hurt others just by existing.

Someone as terrible as me should have died long ago, I should have never been born.

"I decided that I wanted to do it and I did just that. I will not let an innocent suffer whenever I can help."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Ah, so that is why. I am being saved by a fool that believes in my innocence. In someone that wants me to live.

Such idiocy, I do not deserve it. Never did.

But

Even if for just one more instant

I will let myself believe.

Believe that there is hope even for me.

It may be useless, but if I can believe that for just one more instant it will be enough.

And it was at that instant that I saw he took out a blade. The instant that he had that blade in hands I realized something.

 _Ah, so he was the one that should lead me._

And at that instant I felt another presence in me, one that always felt alien to me, stop being something than not myself. I understand now.

What I am.

And what I must do for now on.

And with that, a red beam of concentrated magic energy was liberated from the sword.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

The bomb that was about to destroy all was then annihilated together with the empty humans and the fat scientist.

The final words they heard was a name.

The name of a blade known for being the end of a legend.

" _ **CLARENT**_ "

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I will end thing here, yes the final sword that Castiel had was Clarent the Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword. It is an amazing weapon, and for those who don't know it, it was the weapon used by Mordred, but one thing of importance is that Mordred was never really accapted by the blade thus its powers were limited somewhat. It is a sword comparable to Excalibur and a high-grade noble phantasm.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, have a nice day and untill next time. PS: don't go sending hate messages to one another using the review section.**

 **Next chapter will probably be out in 3 or 4 days. See you then.**


	39. Chapter 34

Castiel P.O.V.

I am tired.

So fucking tired.

As I look at the scorched earth that was left after Clarent's strike I could not feel anything but tiredness. This attack was my strongest one, the only true attack of large-scale destruction I have.

And the effects are incredible as always.

As I was appreciating my work I heard a small sound.

I turn to look and I see that it was the ice wall crumbling as Glaceon returns to his primal form and Eevee pass out. Poor thing, he must be dead tired due to all the magic he was using to protect Miku. Ice wall, controlling shadows and creating barriers are all things that spend quite some power and he still is young, far from his full potential.

Jirachi floated to my shoulder and dropped there, not a single wish for moving anymore. My two Cosmoems were also the same, even more so as they were teleporting me like crazy for quite some time there.

I wanted to send them all back to the Tower, but there were things that I needed to do before it was possible.

Looking to the side I see that Miku was looking at me with an intense stare. As if she could not decide something. I ignored her doubts and decided to simply talk to her what I believe I should.

"Thanks for your support there Miku. Without it, I would probably have died." I said with a smile on my face

Her face blossomed into a smile, this time being an actually beautiful and pure one, before she recomposed herself and turned around, refusing to look at me.

"Hmph, of course you would. I am a goddess after all." She said in a haughty tone.

I chuckled a bit at that reaction.

Was she always this cute, or is the blood loss making me see things?

I then heard soft steps from my side, almost inaudible in fact. As I turned it was Serenity that was there.

She was still using that skull mask but her eyes were clearly focused on me as if trying to memorize my appearance and see if there is something there.

"You are not afraid of this body." Were her first words after her staring at me.

"Why should I be afraid of your body? No poison can affect me after all." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. It was true, even if she was dangerous to be around for everyone else for me her presence was no danger whatsoever (as long as she was not trying to put a dagger on my guts again, they are still hurting).

"…prove it." Was what she said.

I simply put my hand on her shoulder making direct contact with her skin.

She trembled a bit, not knowing if I would survive or not. I simply kept my calm and kept my hand there.

"See, no problems. Your poison means no threat to me whatsoever." I said with a smile to her.

She kept staring at me. And continued so for about a minute, and when I started feeling uncomfortable with her stare she started trembling more than before and, as if her previous act was a mask crumbling, she throws herself at me on a hug.

W-what is going on here? Why is she suddenly hugging me like this?

"W-warm." Was the only thing she said before she started sobbing.

Ah, that is right. Her wish was to be able to feel human contact again, to feel the warmth of another without fear of the other dying.

I braced myself and stayed in that position, petting her back gently as she kept crying, letting out all her stress and repressed emotions that she kept in herself all this time.

Miku was looking on the side while all this was happening, at the start she seemed to be feeling doubtful about my decision of sparing Serenity, but after seeing her reactions the doubts she had seemed to have evaporated. She simply kept looking with a warm smile, even if I felt a hint of something strange in her eyes for an instant.

After a while, Serenity calmed down, took a deep breath and pushed herself away from Castiel. She knew what she should do next, what she should do for the one that gave her that moment of warmness.

She took out a dagger and positioned it directly above her heart and with one push she pushed it right through her own heart, ending her life.

Or that was her plan.

I say, fuck this plan.

Before she could even pierce her skin I held the dagger with my right hand using all of the strength I had left. My hands were bleeding due to this, but I would not let her go through with this stupidity.

She turned her eyes to me, and asked.

"Why do you stop me? If I don't die you can't leave this place, so why do you still refuse to let me die?" She said with a tone that was devoid of emotions, but the desperation she was feeling was palpable.

I looked her in the eye and simply said one sentence that answers what I think of this whole situation.

"Shut up." Was what I said.

Why do the girls around me are all so extreme? Is it my nature and elemental affinity manifesting? Or is it the genes of my father that makes my luck with women be this messed up?

"I said I don't want to let you die, so I won't let you die. So SHUT UP AND STOP ACTING LIKE AN FUCKING IDIOT!" I said stunning both Serenity and Miku. I meant every word I said, I decided on this course of action and I will keep going at it.

I felt a wave of acceptance and agreement from Clarent, as if the sword spirit was agreeing with me.

"B-but if I don't die the death arena will not fall. You will stay locked on this place; why won't you listen to what I say?" Serenity asked.

"We wait then." I said dropping to a sitting position on the ground, too tired to even keep standing. "If there is no winner after some time the guys from the Tower will probably send someone that can release us from it. It may be known as something impossible to escape, but I doubt that there is anyone that would make this sort of things with no failsafe attached somewhere." I said surprising both Serenity and Miku.

Miku then also sat down and relaxed a bit, but it was clear to see that she was still a bit warry of Serenity as she moved to be as close to me as possible while glaring at Serenity the whole time.

Serenity just stayed frozen on her spot, almost as if she could not believe on what was happening. I got annoyed with her standing there while staring and so I took her hand and pulled her down so that she would sit down.

"Kyaa~" was the sound that she liberated when I touched her hand and pulled her close, unfortunately during her fall she ended up touching the tip of her middle finger on Miku's shoulder that was almost glued to mine.

Serenity's eyes went wide and she started despairing, thinking that she had killed unintentionally one more time. I simply smiled as I liberated my left spirit leg bone and released **Purity Sky**.

A halo of pure light spread around the three of us and an amount of poison was being expelled from Miku's body before she even felt the effects manifesting.

Sighing in relief as I saw that scene I turned back to Serenity to explain to her what was happening, but all words escaped my mouth.

Serenity skin is getting whiter.

Her skin is no longer that weird tone of grey that was ever there, but it was closer to a normal human skin's tone, and if anything, she is too pale.

I then started thinking about multiple possibilities, one more crazy than the next, to explain what is happening.

As I kept staring at Serenity she started fidgeting in embarrassment. It was clear that she was feeling embarrassed with me staring at her, not that it really mattered to me as the mystery of why her skin was turning back to normal was that much more important on my head.

"C-can you stop looking at me like this?" was what she said, but it did not really enter my ears, an idea that I formed was much more important. If I was right the repercussions would be truly important for her future.

While keeping quiet I took her hand and, before either of them could react, deactivated **Purity Sky** and then used Serenity's hand to touch Miku.

Both of them jumped away almost instantly, terrified for an instant and them started yelling at me in an extremely loud tone about why the hell I wanted to kill Miku. I simply stared intently at her, waiting to see if there would be any signs of hurting or poisoning on her.

There was none.

Smiling after seeing that my theory was proven right I put my hand in the air requesting to talk.

After a few more insults they let me.

"I am sorry for doing that to you Miku, I know it could be dangerous but it was the only way to prove a theory I had. But n apology is in order." I said as I went Dogeza and put my head on the ground towards her, this time she was truly shocked. "I will listen to any request you may have so that I can apologize to you later, but please let me explain why I did what I did."

She gave a twitch when I said 'any request' and after a moment she asked.

"Any request? No matter how embarrassing or strange it may be?"

"Yes!" I said looking straight at her.

She stayed looking at me some more before sighing in defeat and relenting.

"Fine, but the explanation of why you did that must be a good one." She said pointing a finger at my face before giving a 'Humph' and sitting down.

Serenity was looking confused at all this, not knowing how to react to another person surviving her touch.

"First, I want to explain my theory of what exactly happened on Serenity's body to make her liberate poison all the time. I believe it was a mutation related to something that I am not sure of the nature that transformed her glandules to liberate poison at all times. If I am correct then it would explain why my ability had this effect on her." I said, trying to explain what I believe was quite likely.

It would also explain how those assholes from Iscariots could replicate her ability to produce poison in large amounts throughout her body.

"B-but that still doesn't explain why I could touch someone without they dying." Serenity asked.

"It is due to the secondary effect of **Purity Sky** , that allows me to clean curses and impurities. I think it may have allowed for a cleansing of Serenity's body of all those poisons and the curse she was going through. It is likely to be just temporary, as I doubt a curse that strong could be eliminated that quickly, but it may help mitigate its effects for a time." I said what I think, and most likely is the truth. In the end, I doubt a curse so strong that made Serenity immune to other curses would stop that easily, but if it can be stopped for some time then that is good too.

Serenity looked at me in pure disbelieve, not being capable to process what I said. But Miku did understand it well enough and decided to ask.

"So that was the reason behind you wanting to make her touch me? To see if you were right?" She asked with some anger in her voice.

"Yes." I said immediately. "I know it was a cruel and hasty decision, but I needed to know the answer."

"Hmph, so you wanted to use me as a lab rat. I knew that I could not trust you." Miku said.

"I will say it again, and as much as you want in the future, that I am sorry. I shouldn't have done it, but I want you to know that I will never do anything to really hurt you. I was ready to launch a new **Purity Sky** on the smallest signal that you were poisoned." I said to her, she still looked doubtful so I decided to tell her again the same truth I said so many times now. "As long as you are by my side I will try my best to protect you, I said this before and I will tell you a thousand times more if that makes you feel any better. I will not hurt you."

The effect was instantaneous as she simply lowered her head and did not talk anything more to me.

Serenity, on the other hand, started hyperventilating a bit, clearly thinking about all possibilities that this skill of mine can give her.

"W-what does it mean exactly?"

"That I can make you normal for some intervals of time. It is not perfect, but with this you can be a normal girl from time to ti-"

And that was as far as I could go before Serenity jumped at me in a bear hug. This time I could feel that she was in the purest happiness she has been for a long time, the tears of happiness that left her face was clear to see.

And so she stayed there for a while, refusing to move even a bit. I was thinking that it was enough time spent like that, but when I tried to move her I heard a soft sound escaping from her lips. When I looked I saw that she was sleeping, an innocent smile on her lips.

Today was a stressful day for everyone so it was not a surprise for her to end up sleeping before she herself noticed.

*sigh* I wonder how long before we can get away from this arena. I want to get out right now if possible after all.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And so we got out.

My eyebrow must be twitching because I understood the meaning of getting out of there that easily.

The one that uses the death arena crystal is the one that marks who is the enemy and who is the ally. I should have decided subconsciously due to the moment I used (was about to be impaled by a dagger after all), but to think my subconscious mind had marked a girl with a dagger aimed at my heart as an ally… it makes me wonder how messed up I am.

An image of Yuno crossed my mind, and I decided to not think any more about the possible repercussions of this way of thinking.

As I had that passing thought I transferred back to the Tower all my familiars and started trying to concentrate to absorb the energy granted to me by winning on the death arena. It was not that giant of capacity but it did give me a boost on the total amount of energy I had. Wait, is this for real? Did I finally manage to break that damn bottleneck between the mid-class and high-class? Fucking finally, I had been struck by the utmost limit of the middle-class since I was 12 and now I finally reached low high-class. If It wasn't because my legs can barely move I would start dancing in happiness.

Before I pass-out out of sheer exhaustion, I need to communicate with the others and see if they were fine.

"Hey, is anyone there? Are you guys well? Answer me." I said in a message.

After a few moments, I heard an answer.

"Castiel, is that you?" It was Emily on the other side. "We are all fine, except for the Sister, but she will be resurrected in the Tower anyway. There was some serious amount of injury, but due to Okuyasu **The Hand** we are all fine now. It is mostly just dead tired. And you, are you fine?"

"Yeah, I and Miku are just fine. The three of us are not that seriously wounded mostly due to Miku's healing powers. She is amazing at it; she must be truly talented to get to this level." I said to Emily in a good mood, knowing that they are mostly fine. It is a shame that Sister died, but as a Sister, they can be resurrected without any problem back in the Tower so she is likely there relaxing at this instant. We usually leave ready a few bodies just waiting to receive a soul after all.

"Castiel, can I ask you something?" Emily said.

A few moments later I would regret my answer.

"Sure."

"Who is the third person that is with you there? Is it a girl?" Emily asked in a tone that would not be strange on a pissed Yuno.

I

HATE

MY

LUCK!

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

In the hideout of Iscariots on the city, the priest was reading a report given to him by Bao.

"So? What were the results?" the priest asked.

"The missions mostly failed, but we got an idea of how the mutated exorcists work so it was not a total loss." Was the answer that Bao said in an absolutely military fashion.

"And those three special models?"

"Those three worked fine, in the way that was expected of them with no glitches and responded to orders with no signs of their previous personalities." Bao answered. He had put some of his cells inside those empty humans so that he could understand whatever they did.

He would have entered the fight in the best moment to eliminate all targets, or that was the plan. Unfortunately, Castiel's use of Clarent killed all of the empty humans and obliterated them. He only got some of his cells to survive due to sheer luck.

"What was your opinion on those three models?" The priest asked.

"They will work perfectly for what we intend to use them for. Doctor Shuu Tucker-sama really is a genius." Bao answered.

"Yes, those three models are the keys. Our very own weapons for mass destruction, I can barely wait to release them in the underworld. Imagine those devils faces when we rain down light bullets and poison on them. And even if they are lucky enough to survive and defeat them, we can self-destruct and eliminate them all afterward. Oh, the world will be much cleaner when we use a few dozens of them all across the many devil cities of the underworld, just thinking in how many of the devil-kind we will eliminate with this makes me understand that all of use will receive special treatment when we go meet our great supreme God. And we will even eliminate the children and babies so that there won't be any orphans, we truly are good at heart." And with an evil grin that would make anyone say that this man was pure evil inside he concluded. "Their screams of pain and anguish are sure to please our Lord. This is what we as Iscariots were made for, elimination of all evil in the world." and putting his hands on a praying position he said. "Let's pray."

And together with Bao, they both said together words that they did not deserve to say, as even God's forgiveness would not accept those like them.

""Dearest Lord, bless us as your loyal subjects as we are one with your light and your light shine through us. Grant us the glory that we so desire and lead us to do as you see fit. AMEN!""

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed.**

 **I decided to put that little detail on the end of the chapter for all to see that everything you saw was no more than a rehearsal and a 'test-drive' for the mutated exorcists. And in case anyone thinks they would not be any real threat because they are so much weaker than some of the devils I want you guys to do a comparison, the terrorists that made the 9/11 were much weaker than the military might of the USA but they still killed thousands of innocents. Now imagine if they had hijacked 300 planes at once instead of just 3, and put high capacity explosives in all the planes, that is the sort of damage that the Iscariots can cause to the devil-kind.**

 **It is not always the most powerful that wins and the civilians are the ones that suffer the most when two sides fight. This is what I wanted to show.**

 **Also, I decided that there could only ever be one person evil and smart enough to create such aberrations and now you have it. Shu Tucker, the same one that did THAT with his daughter and the family dog in fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood.**

 **BTW, I know that what Castiel did to Miku was bad, but she was the only one there he could use to test his theory. After all, Serenity cannot be affected by her own poison or any other weaker than her own and Castiel is immune to all poisons period so Miku was the only option.**

 **Again, next chapter will likely come out in 3 or four days. Any coments are wellcome as long as they aare not pure hate.**


	40. Chapter 35

Castiel P.O.V.

Explaining to Emily about Serenity was not that terrible, doing it to the others was much worst.

I am now in front of the others as we are all in a new apartment, already fortified by LeFay that had some energy to spare (but she was still quite weak). But the real reason of why we can relax a bit is another one.

I met one of Okuyasu's masters, Akisame. The man was quite civil and gentle, but I could feel the power rolling out of him.

He was strong. Dangerously so. To the point that I would not be able to tell who would win between him and most of the executives in the Tower (the executives are Lancer, Rider, Saber, Caster, Berserker, and Assassin).

He was now treating Okuyasu and Seryu exhaustions by using his Ki. Those two are the most tired of us all, which means a lot as I was awake just due to some energetic drinks made to make sure a magus can spend three or four weeks without needing to sleep. And even then I was just about to roll over and sleep.

After making sure that everyone was fine I needed to verify two important things that I could not let go right now.

"Will they be fine?" I asked Akisame as he finished transferring his Ki to the two of them.

"Yeah, they will be fine. I just finished their treatment and now we just have to wait until they wake up naturally. The others are fine as well, but Arthur will need some more time as his body received too much damage and, even with Okuyasu curing him before fully passing out, he will still need time to properly recover." Said Akisame as he finished his diagnostic.

I nodded at that and gave him my most sincere thanks, I owe him quite a lot as he saved Seryu and Arthur lives'.

"No need to thank me, I was here for a mission after all." Was Akisame's answer.

Tilting my head, a little I asked.

"And what was the mission?"

He looks peaceful before saying.

"Simple, I came here to get back an item that was stolen by a little thief." Was his answer.

My brows must be twitching like crazy because I am pretty sure who is the thief in this case.

"Give what you stole back to him, Lugh." I said glaring at the white-haired eye-patched girl on the room.

She rolled her shoulders and tossed back a magatama to Akisame.

"Yes, now I can deliver this to the Japanese Pantheon and get paid. No more financial problems for Ryozampaku for some time." He said with a slight smile on his face.

If I remember right Okuyasu did say that his dojo had a terrible luck with money and they barely could keep going due to this, so getting a large sum at once must have put Akisame in a good mood.

Now I have to deal with another headache.

"Why are you here Lugh?" I asked the girl that was admiring her sword (that was most likely stolen) without a care in the world, but it was clear to see that she was a bit down for losing one of 'her treasures'.

"I was helping." Was what she said.

Seeing that this was going to be a long story, I did the only thing I could think of that would be correct. I gave her something to sign.

"What is this?" she asked.

"A geass, it says that you will stay here for the rest of the day and will answer my questions truthfully. If you sign we are good, if not I will give you to Rin. Do you prefer to talk to her or me?" I said with a smile just as angelic as Rin usually had, a smile faker than the one Miku uses (even if she did not smile like that for me since the death arena, strange).

Lugh shuddered a bit on imagining a talk to Rin right now, that is NOT something she would like to do. She then signed the geass and gave it back to me.

Smiling I turned around and went to leave the room.

"W-wait, wasn't you going to make questions to me right now?" Lugh said sounding extremely confused.

"Yeah… no. I am too tired for this shit. We will talk after I take a much-deserved nap." I said as I left the room. I know Lugh well enough and she will not do anything now.

She is a crazy girl that is almost the incarnation of greed, but she will not backstab others for no good reason… and with Akisame right there I doubt she would even think about it, her survival instincts are too strong for her to act stupid.

As I Ieft the room I was accompanied by Serenity that refused to be more than five steps from me at all times. It was probably due to me being the only one she feels comfortable being with, the others still mistrust her and she fears that she might accidentally poison them due to her poison returning (it took 10 minutes to her skin turn grey again, a likely sign of the poison activity).

Before I could arrive on my room (and my, oh so inviting, bed) I heard someone calling for me. I turned and there was Miku looking at me intently.

"Castiel, I decided what I want you to do for me." She said with a serious face, but when I took a closer look I could see that her legs were trembling a bit.

"And what would it be? And will it take too long? I want to go to bed and sleep." Normally I would try to be more gentle, but I am so tired that I could not give a damn even at gunpoint right now.

"It will be fast. Please sign this." She said as she gave me a geass.

I shrugged my shoulders and accepted to take a look and if it was not something too extreme I would sign it right now and be done with it.

This is one of the rare moments that I thank Luvia's training on how to act in a fitting manner regardless of the situation. All those times she made me read official (and extra boring and repetitive type) documents, while I was sleep deprived for over four days of non-stop training, made me capable to understand a document even if less than a tenth of my brain bothered to be functional.

It was fairly simple, not any double meaning or any trick like that. This geass was simple, to be honest about my opinion to her for the next two hours.

I signed without any problem and gave the geass back to Miku. She had a serious face all along, especially when I was signing, but after that, I noticed that her shoulders relaxed just a little bit.

"Come with me." She said and started going to another place.

*sigh* Bye, bye my precious bed. It seems like we were not destined to be together for now, but know this:

I will be back.

After accompanying Miku for some time we arrived at her room. She immediately went to a notebook and started searching for something in there.

After finding a video on YouTube she put me to listen to it. It was a younger girl (probably 14 or 15) singing.

(Writer' Note: all rights for this music goes to LeeandLie. Check it out there.)

 ** _Heavenly Blue (Aldnoah Zero OP1-cover)_**

 _This is how a legend is born_

 _It's nothing more than a bouquet of lies, ink burning darker than black_

 _But it's a curse you will live with, a curse you will die with_

 _Forever reaching for things that don't exist_

 _._

 _Nonetheless this godforsaken path that you walk_

 _It is a curse in itself, an inescapable crime_

 _But it's a beauty I'll guard until the end of time (_ sodistia _)_

 _._

 _Rain melts down from the stars, falling from azure skies_

 _All at once turning this world's every hue into blue_

 _Granted a simple choice: Stay mute or raise your voice_

 _I for one want to find out just how far you can be heard_

 _._

 _At a glance we both were falling for this world, enchanted by its light_

 _Could this be the place we finally belong?_

 _For all of humanity, I will take the stage alone_

 _And somehow manifest a roaring symphony_

 _We were born for flight before the light of the dawn_

 _._

 _Murmur sweet nothings to me_

 _It's nothing more than a whisper of pain,_

 _A thousand knives to my heart_

 _Inside it boils my darkness, that sea of pitch black_

 _I fear that I'm addicted, now there's no going back_

 _._

 _I have fallen deeply for the haze of your smile_

 _The brilliant pure radiance drowning in cold ambience_

 _But it's a beauty I'll guard until the end of time (_ mistioso _)_

 _._

 _Where is our motherland? Could it be where we stand?_

 _Do you think maybe in another life we were here?_

 _Everything we will seek – Everything we will feel_

 _All depends on how far the two of us can cast our reach_

 _._

 _At a glance we both were falling for this world, enchanted by its light_

 _All its beauty more divine when unattained_

 _Hear our one and only wish – Hear it calling out your name_

 _It's slowly trembling in arms of darkness_

 _We extend our hands before the light of the dawn_

 _._

kantisti sonta _dia_ maliti _ola_

 _(dia)_ adita asole imente

 _salita_ martita

amisti _ola dia_ malita _sola_

adito _(_ sali _)_ idiya masole isto gloria

.

 _One and all are falling deeply for this world, enchanted by its light_

 _Could it be thanks to that distant melody?_

 _For all of humanity, we will take the stage as one_

 _And somehow manifest a roaring symphony_

 _._

 _Take your dreaming heart and set it free_

 _As we reach out for the same horizon – toward that light –_

 _The one within our dreams_

 _Even though it's far away, I believe in our resolve_

 _If this is meant to be we will find a way_

 _Put your faith in me and reach for that HEAVENLY BLUE_

 _._

(Writer's Note: Again, all rights for the lyric belong exclusively to AmaLee and you can find it on her youtube channel, which I totally recommend)

"So? What did you think?" Miku asked as the song ended.

After finishing hearing this song I looked at Miku and kept staring at her for a moment without voicing out anything before turning back to my room without another word.

I have something I have to do.

* * *

Miku P.O.V.

I knew it.

I knew he had to be lying earlier when he said he liked my songs. After he heard one of the songs I put the most emotions I could he did not say anything and left.

Heh, why is that that I feel a cold feeling in my belly? Was I actually hoping for him to be different? No, of course not. I will not be the fool again, no one likes my songs for real except perhaps my mother.

It must be because he must tell me honestly, but he thought it was bad. He was just like those two, they act nice on the outside but inside they completely dislike me.

I knew it, all men are the same in the end. I just knew i-

SLAM

My door opened not even a minute after Castiel left and he came back.

He had something on his hand that I could not see exactly.

He sat in front of the computer and started searching for something there with an extremely serious face.

"What are you doin-"

"Shush. I am busy now." He said without even turning back to look at me.

I stayed there trying to understand what he was doing. Was he writing a review saying how bad I am, like all the other reviews I received back then?

"… and done." He said with a happy smile. "Thanks for the present Miku."

"What do you mean by that?" I could not help but ask.

Those next words he said were impossible for me to forget.

"Huh, wasn't you gifting me a new song for my cellphone? I mean, I just downloaded it with Itunes and added it to my favorite list of all times and all. It was one of the best songs I ever heard, so many feelings of so diverse natures coming together in a wonderful harmony. Truly a masterpiece." He then looked at me in the eye and smiled. "Thanks for the song Miku."

BABUMP

What did this man say?

BABUMP

BABUMP

He honestly liked my song? He even thanked me for singing?

BABUMP

BABUMP

BABUMP

I, I must make sure of this.

"L-look at the others on the playlist." I said and so he did.

He closed his eyes and moved his head according to the beat of the songs, and one after another he downloaded them all to his phone.

"Now look at these." I said after he finished those songs I made myself and transferred him to another page with those that I sang with magic, those that everyone else praises me for that was written by somebody else.

He changed music's very fast, listening to it for a bit before going for the next one.

"Which one did you prefer?" I asked, not even knowing what answer I preferred.

"The first playlist, obviously. The first one was more amateur to be sure, but the songs had much more impact and were much better. The second playlist seemed to be made with selling the brand as the most important, a commercial song." He then shocks his head and concluded with a sigh. "Those two cannot be even put on the same level, the first one is that much better."

BABUMP

BABUMP

BABUMP

BABUMP

Before I realized I pushed him out of my room. I need to think and understand what am I going to do next.

Is it really possible that he genuinely likes MY original songs? Is it possible?

I need to talk to mother about this.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Weird.

Why did she shove me out of her room out of a sudden?

.

.

.

.

.

You know what, I will follow what the manliest man I know taught me years ago.

'When dealing with a woman, learn that you will never understand them. Just nod and go do your thing.' That is the advice that Lancer-sensei said to me while Souichiru-sensei kept nodding on the side. The fact that they can stay in a marriage with two of the scariest woman on earth is, to me, a proof of the concept.

As I left for my room I could almost see the heavenly vision that was my bed when I noticed something.

Serenity was still following me.

"Why don't you go find a room?" I asked.

"There are none."

"… Are you tired too?" I asked.

"Yes."

She really can stay quiet more often than not. I waited to hear her talk some more, but she just stayed there staring at me.

"I am going to sleep now, why don't you do the same? We can try and figure out what we are going to do latter." I said, thinking on what I am going to do to explain back in the Tower why there is a new girl following me around like a shadow.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

A pink-haired girl suddenly felt that her spot as the stalker of her beloved was threatened.

"I feel a disturbance on the stalker force."

Were her exact words at that moment.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

A sweet-drop rolled on my back with such a thought.

I better go to sleep now.

As I laid down on the bed and was feeling my mind drift away I noticed something. Serenity was laying down on the ground to sleep.

I instantly stood up when I saw this, a serious expression on my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Going to sleep."

"Why don't you go search for a bed, there is no need for you to sleep on the ground." I asked

"I searched earlier while you were talking with Miku-sama and there are no extra beds." She then shrugged her shoulders. "I will sleep on the ground; I am used to it anyway."

Am I to let this happen? Does she think I will be pleased by it, or even allow it?

Heck no!

"Get up." I said in a serious tone.

"Understood." She said getting up and positioning herself in front of me.

"Sit here." I said pointing to the bed, I could see a tingle of pink on her cheeks as she complied with my instructions. "Now lay down and rest." I said getting up and letting her keep the bed.

"B-but what about you? You need to rest even more than me." She said immediately after I got up. She tried to get up but I put my hands on her shoulders and put her back on the bed.

"I am a man and I will not let you sleep on the floor so I can keep the bed, now stop talking and go to sleep." I said, but then I noticed something. "And for how long do you intend on keeping the mask on?"

She was wearing that mask up until now. Now that I think about it I never got to see her face directly, even in her memories I only saw things from her perspective so I couldn't see it either.

Seeing me staring at her face it was clear that she was conflicted about it.

"B-but I am a monster. I killed so many people and was always taught that my appearance was a disaster, that I should hide it away." She said while shaking her head.

HEAD CHOP

"Ouch." She said rubbing her head that I just gave a chop.

"Stop saying nonsense and just get this mask out. You are not a monster and you can show your face as much as you want, now take that uncomfortable thing out." I said imagining how using a mask for so long must be annoying as fuck.

Hearing my words, she slowly and carefully took out her mask.

"…Beautiful." Was all I could say as I looked at her face. Her face was simply beautiful to the extreme, probably the prettiest face I have ever seen. It was just so lovely and delicate that it seemed almost against what could be allowed in the world. It was to the point that she could match equally both Kaguya and Yuzuru, and the two are royalties from the fairy race that is well known for beautiful women.

Hearing me call her beautiful (which she is) she bashfully started fidgeting under my gaze.

After a minute where I was lost in looking at her, I finally managed to recompose myself. How can someone have such a perfect face is beyond me, it is too beautiful and perfect in every way.

"A-anyway, of to sleep now." I said pushing her on the bed and putting a blanket over her, to make sure she was cozy and comfortable.

After making sure that she has fallen asleep I lay down on the ground and decided to sleep as well. But not before seeing her face with a happy smile as she dreamed about something, there was even a trace of tears in her eyes that I cleaned up.

Seeing that I managed to save those in need made me happy, almost enough for me to forget that I will have to explain for Yuno and the others about Serenity and the fact that I am sleeping on the ground today.

On the other hand, I feel that my back will not forget this sleep that I am taking today for a long time.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

"… so? What do I do mom?" Miku asked her mother in a video-chat (gods still use the internet, after all, Japanese gods in special have the best signal on all the world, just losing to the angels that managed to get Steve Jobs soul up there).

"Well, my dear, what do you feel in your heart? Do you trust him?"

"I- I think so. It is strange but I feel that he will not hurt me in any way. It's different to before, he doesn't try to please me all the time but I can feel that he is honest with me." Miku said after a few seconds, she still remembers how both Suzaku, the producer, and her fans complimented her all the time.

And she also remembers how it was all empty praise, that they never really liked her for her. Castiel was different in that regard, he talked back to her but honestly liked her music and put his life on the line protecting her.

H-he might actually be different from those two.

"But he got so many girls all around him, and I refuse to be a mistress or something like that." She said haughtily.

Her mother gave a knowing smile as she knew her daughter all too well. She always likes to act tough and say things, but if her heart wanted something for real she would listen.

All goddesses were like this, passionate beings that can get lost in love on the drop of a hat. Miku was probably trying hard to not let herself be taken by those emotions, but Mikoto knew that those emotions were the key to Miku's happiness.

"Weeelll… there is something you do not know about him yet." Mikoto was taking a lot of pleasure out of this situation.

"What? Is it important? Is it serious? Quick, tell me." Miku said in a quick fashion.

"You know that the Tower and we of the Japanese Pantheon have been growing distant with time, right?"

"Yes, that is why it was decided for Castiel to guard me as a show of connection between both sides." Miku said as if natural, after all, that was the official (and only) version she knew of.

"That is actually incorrect. It was not something so small that was made to connect both sides, but something more 'to death do us apart', so to say." Again, Mikoto was taking way too much pleasure out of teasing her daughter.

"D-d-d-d-d-d-d-do you main marriage?"

"Yep."

"Between who?" Miku could not comprehend what she was hearing, or better yet she could not believe it one bit.

"You and Castiel, of course." Mikoto said with a smile on her face.

Miku stayed paralyzed, not a thought was passing through her head in that moment. Just after several seconds like that she reacted again with one question, a final line of defense that her mind had put up before her feelings got too big.

"Did he knew?" If he did then he might have pretended on all his actions, acted that way showing that she could trust him.

'It might have been an act.' Was the last line of defense her mind had, but even she felt it was a brittle and weak argument at best.

Even she doesn't know if it would make that much of a difference at this point, her feelings were getting out of hand to the point that she didn't know what to think anymore.

"No, we made sure to not tell him anything. He was himself the entire time." Then a thought passed through Mikoto's mind, one that she found really interesting. "Isn't it great that your future darling already promised to protect you as long as you are beside him?"

Miku could not respond, not because she did not want to answer her mother but because at that moment her last line of defense was breached and one word took over it all, engrained on her very soul at that instant.

" _Darling?_ "

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **I am just going to point out a few things here. First about Miku, she is someone that comes from a species that is made to love intensely but was always told that it would be impossible for her, she also has serious confidence and trust issues so seeing Castiel defending her, doing what he promised without empty promises, and appreciating her work as it is instead of how the others that just liked her for her power, well she starting to love him immensely and fast is to be expected.**

 **The thing Lugh gave back to Akisame was one of the three regalias (sacred treasures) of Japan, the Magatama.**

 **And Serenity's part, well she is someone that wanted warmth more than anything else and this is exactly what Castiel is offering her. He deciding to sleep in the floor instead of sharing the bed or leaving her side was so as to respect her space and, more importantly, to keep her calm since she only calms down when close to him.**

 **Finally to answer a reviewer question. Yes, Castiel knows Ravel for quite some time but they don't have any sort of romantic feelings right now. Perhaps in the future it might change, but for now it is unlikely at best. And I will tell you guys this, the reason for Castiel to have such immense problems with perverts comes from a situation he had to deal with that involved her and another character that I WILL turn into a complete and utter asshole that will deserve to be killed.**

 **I challenge you guys in figuring this out.**

 **Also, the Iscariots will take some time to appear again but I can assure you they are NOT the only group I am creating that will be true villains. Actually, compared to the hero faction they will be normal villains at best.**

 **Until the next chapter in three or four days (depending exclusively on my muse). And in case of doubt, I am now writing chapter 66 so know that this story still has a LOT to offer.**

 **Bye.**


	41. Chapter 36

Castiel P.O.V.

Heavy.

Why is it that there is something heavy in my stomach?

As I opened my eyes ever so slightly I saw a white ball with many teeth looking straight at me with a promise of death and suffering.

I closed my eyes and started praying to God to please don't let them realize that I am awake, no amount of courage is enough to face an angry girlfriend that happens to have a pet that can (and wants) to eat you alive.

"Why are you pretending to go back to sleep? Are you that tired of me that after a night with another girl you do not even want to see my face?" was what Seryu said with a glare that would make most men piss their pants.

I immediately jumped out of the floor and bowed to her (no dignity there, but in a relationship dignity is a luxury that I don't have more often than not). I got to open my mouth, ready to try and explain everything to her.

I probably can get out of this mess without getting beaten by someone I love IF I can choose the right words.

" _ **DDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGG!**_ "

And a purple comet rocketed from the door right to me in a bear hug in such a speed that I doubt I could have done it better even at my best.

Also, it was at that instant that I noticed that Miku, which kept hugging me and repeating "Darling, darling", don't know how to read the mood.

First, I don't have a single clue about why she is calling me Darling.

Second is that the mood in question is a murderous one that is being released by a pissed off Seryu and an even more pissed Koro.

When I saw she took out an AK-47 with modified magical bullets, I could swear I heard someone laugh at me on the distance, taking pleasure of the troubles I found myself in more often than not.

I will do as I was taught since young in the Tower, in case of doubt blame Zelretch.

* * *

After finishing explaining the situation for Seryu (especially on the 'why I saved a girl that almost killed her a few days ago' bit) I went to another place where an uncomfortable conversation was waiting for me. Deciding to ignore Miku was just a bonus, the girl wasn't making sense and I had something to do so I will wait for her to calm down and then go see her.

"Finally, I was getting tired of waiting." The girl that I needed to talk to said in a tired tone. Damn her, even when she is on 'enemy' territory she had a better night than me.

"Well, not everyone here had such a pleasant night as you Lugh." I said with a glare.

This girl was a whole other type of headache.

In the past, she always did nonsensical things to obtain her 'treasures' and almost got the Tower on a war many times.

I remember once that we suffered a zombie invasion back in the Tower due to Hades attacking to recuperate his cape that she stole.

Fun fact, that was the one time most of the guys in the Tower did not get pissed at her. Everyone hates that bag of bones; he is just too annoying.

Getting back to the topic I sit in front of Lugh so that she can explain to me what the hell happened. Why she turned coat and what are her intentions, those are the questions that I need to understand.

"So, what happened in the arena?" I asked.

"Well… I knew that those dudes from Iscariots were thinking of killing me, so I decided that I might as well finish them off first. But I knew that facing them all would be impossible" I know for a fact that, for her, it would be far from impossible. Just tiresome and hard. "so I decided to use the chance given to me."

"The chance being?"

"That they would try something evil and that you would send people to stop them. I just needed to sit down and wait for you guys to come and deal with them, also it was a chance to get the sword Mugen." She then shrugged her shoulders. "A treasure is a treasure and, as I don't know the ponytail guy, it was not a hard decision to try and kill him for his sword."

I want to face-palm right now. This girl is always like this, she would not kill someone she considers a friend as long as she could avoid it, but she would have no problem in killing pretty much anyone else.

Taking a deep breath, I continued.

"Why did you decide to run away from the Tower? And why did you steal that item? You know how important that is for Rin." I asked about the most important part.

As I know that she is under geass, to be honest, she will have to talk the truth. And that is what will define what I will do to her.

"Why did you leave the Tower and how did you end up with the Iscariots?" I asked fully ready to strike her down depending on the circumstances… or ask Akisame to take her down. My body and circuits are still quite sore.

"I left because I decided to look for intel about someone that also left the Tower, Valper Galilei. I heard he went to Iscariots for some intel that he desired so I also joined them to look for him."

As I heard that I could see how it could make sense. Valper was something like a godfather to her since young and he was quite important back in the Tower, him leaving made no sense as he loved the place.

But, since my father died he 'changed' according to the others in the Tower so who knows what is passing through his head.

She trying to go look for him is logical, but I still think it is far from explaining all the story.

"Continue, and explain ALL the reasons. If you think I will believe that this was your only reason you must be stupid." I said with some venom, but a bit less than before, in my voice. Doing what you can to help your family is the right thing to do most of the time.

Except for me, if I know Zelretch is going for some difficulties I will probably dance in joy. I will never forget that stinky bomb.

"Weeelll… they were a great scapegoat for all my stealing acts. I stole from many people and made sure that anyone that was searching for the items would happen to found a connection to Iscariots. This is how I got to steal Hermes Sandals without repercussion." She said with a devious smile, that I probably am doing just as well.

Knowing that she was pissing off somebody else, especially it being those fuckers, really made me happy. Sadistically happy, but happy nonetheless.

"I understand. So, long story short you went to Iscariots to search for Galilei and screw them over by making them scapegoats. While these desires are something I can agree to, the fact that you left the Tower and is a danger remains. Now answer me, what do you intend to do from now on?" I asked.

My rage towards her reduced by quite a few times, but not enough to simply let her walk always that easy. She is dangerous to others and herself due to getting dumb whenever she sees any treasure.

I still remember the time she stole the crown of the fairy queen WHILE we were there on a peace treaty. I almost got killed and all she did was cheer them on in killing me so that she could get my swords.

She did help me get out of that but it was not an instantaneous decision of hers. It was more her fear of what would happen in the future if she didn't, she fears Illya like a demon and Berserker as the executioner and both like me (a bit too much during those survival trainings if you ask me).

"Well…" was what she said with an embarrassed face. That face made me get the chills, whenever she had that face she ends up having an outrageous request. One that is likely to get me in a bad spot. "I was hoping you could hire me as a bodyguard for you or something. This way you get extra protection and I can have a backer to not let me get killed in revenge by Iscariots."

.

.

.

.

.

"Let's go with NO for that one." I said after being paralyzed for a few instants.

"Why not? Am I not capable enough of protecting you?" She said in a bit of desperation.

I know why she is acting like this, she knows that she has no more backer right now and most likely no one else would accept her that she could approve.

Most of those that she could work with she already stole from, and the others are genocidal monsters that she would end up killing herself.

"Because you are the type that would run away first when danger arrives. I can't and won't hire you to be my bodyguard." And I don't have the money to do so. Rin is cheap enough that I can barely deal with my normal expenses and now that Serenity will likely be going to live with me (the whole 'only one that she can cure her of her poison' being a big part of the reason) I honestly don't have the funds to hire Lugh.

"C-can't you find somewhere for me then? Please, for a friend." She said with her own version of puppy-dog eyes, that could have worked if I wasn't used to girls using them with me all the time (the fact that I bend to those eyes most of the time is not relevant, or so my male pride says).

As I thought about what she said an idea came to my mind. An idea that could be beneficial to the Tower and solve a LOT of my problems.

"If you REALLY want to go back to the Tower you could sign a master-servant contract with me." I said and her face immediately fell a bit. A master-servant contract allows for the master (A.K.A. me) knows the location of the servant (A.K.A. this thief right here) at all times.

It also makes her incapable of defying me, not that I would abuse the contract but the thought of her not cheering for whoever is trying to kill me is an attractive prospect.

And the final bonus is that it also helps us to get stronger the more the time passes, even if the boost is negligible most of the time. Kinda like the boost that devils have, it only is impressive with a long time and is not something I particularly enjoy.

But she will enjoy less so that makes it a good thing for me (I will never forget the time she stole all my stock of ultra-deluxe pudding just so that she could have my 'treasure', I was four at that time and I still remember clear as day).

It was clear to anyone that she was struggling with the decision

"Is there no other option?" She said while gnashing her teeth.

I smiled and answered. "Nope."

Seeing her frustrated makes me so happy. Every time I manage to do that I feel a bit better about myself.

"Why is that the only option? Can't we simply enter a geass or something?" She asked

"Nope, this one is the only option. If I let it be a simple geass you would find a way around it so that you can steal some more. On the other hand, with this one, you cannot disobey a direct order and I will ALWAYS know where you are. No more sneaking around to steal something or run away without warning." I said with a victorious expression.

This is the only way for me to accept her back in the Tower, and I am the best chance she got to get back. If she tries the other instructors the chance is nil and if she tries Rin she will likely die, no exaggeration in that either.

She stole that item after all. Dumb idea, truly dumb one.

As if defeated in battle Lugh dropped her head and sighed in defeat when she said.

"Fine, but I have a few conditions to accept that."

"Of course, you can ask anything." Again, I would be a terrifying lawyer or devil. As she can 'ask' for anything, not that I will follow her requests.

"Can you sign a geass that says that you will not send me on any suicidal mission, will not order me to do anything against my moral code and that any punishment will not be suffering?" She asks.

Honestly, I never planned to let any of those three things so I have no issue with that. For the first two requests, they are part of the course, I will not order her around or anything. I am not a slaver or anything of the sort.

And about the punishment, I have a better idea than 'suffering'.

"Those are acceptable. Also, I want to add that if, at any moment, you want to leave you will be free to do so. But I will need a proper explanation about the reason and a warning before we end the contract." I said, much to her relief.

I never intended to make her a slave or anything, just to have a way to make absolutely sure that she will not use the Tower's baking to commit even more thievery or just go away out of nowhere.

She did that way too much in the past… now that I think about it she acts like a stray cat most of the time. She comes when she wants, leaves when she wants and does whatever the hell she pleases most of the time.

"I accept." Was her answer, even if her displeased face was evidence of how much she did not want any of that.

I nodded and quickly started drawing the magical circle. It was not overly complex and I finished it in a question of 2 minutes.

After that we entered the circle and started the ritual, the chant was long and boring (the one that made this contract must have been a bureaucrat) but in the end the contract was completed and the magical symbol of it appeared in the top of my hand.

Lugh slowly, and very reluctantly kneeled on the ground and kissed it. And in that instant that everything was going well, things took a turn for the worse (again, I blame Zelretch and my nature).

The door swung open and from there three people entered all at once.

"Darling, what is taking you so lo-" and so said Miku.

"Castiel, is this still going to take much long-" this was Emily.

"Boss, is everything oka-" and so said Seryu.

Now, this looks bad. Like really bad.

I am on the opposite side of the door with Lugh kneeling in front of me with her back turned to them. Due to being on her knees she is on the same height as my crotch and anyone from the door can't tell for sure what she is doing.

My next actions were coldly calculated, and I take pride in that I did not go with the option that so many others do to say 'this is not what you think'. That phrase NEVER works.

I did the best action possible, the only one that would guaranty that I will not be killed.

I turned around and throw myself out of the window!

Staying there means death, no questions asked, but if I run away fast enough I may survive a few more instants.

Cowardice for the win!

* * *

After half an hour (and asking Arthur, that had woken up, if the girls are still out for blood) I went back.

When I get back I had to face three VERY pissed girls and one that had an amused smile on her face (damn Lugh).

"…So?" was all Seryu said while looking at me with eyes as empty as when she is hunting stray-devils. A good sign, if I faced her at that moment I have no doubt that I would have to face up with some big guns and Koro. A pissed Koro.

I'd rather survival training over that (and that is saying a lot).

"I was concluding a master-servant ritual with Lugh." I said, trying to act normal while there was so much sweat drops rolling out of my back that it could be mixed with a waterfall. "What you girls saw was the fealty kiss given in the end. Nothing more, nothing less."

Please let it work, please God let it work.

After a few moments with Seryu, Emily and Miku (why is she acting like this?) staring down at me they finally relaxed. It seems like they believe me.

Thank you God for this help, I knew believing in you in my hours of need would work eventually.

As I got relieved I could not help but ask.

"Miku, why are you calling me darling out of nowhere?" I said tilting my head a bit.

I honestly cannot understand the reason as to why this is happening, but I know that I need to get a clearer picture of what trouble I am now.

"Because darling is darling, silly." She said with a smile so radiant that probably even the sun is less shiny.

I rubbed my head, trying to understand what she said. Again I see the wisdom of Lancer-sensei when he said that 'women are crazy'.

"And why am I your darling?" I asked in the most neutral and gentle way possible.

Her smile did not waver when she answered me.

"Because you are my fiancé, and my darling."

I froze.

Seryu froze.

Emily froze.

Everyone in the room froze.

"Take care of me for now on, hubby." Miku said while hugging me.

.

.

.

.

.

WHAT?!

And I mean WHAT!

Why is this happening? What is going on?

And why are Emily, Seryu, and Serenity looking at me as if I was garbage?

"Hahahahahaha, never a dull moment around you. I missed that, hahahahahahahaha" Lugh said while laughing nonstop.

However, I smiled as I saw that the punishment I put in her started taking effect. He whole body started trembling with itchiness, she could not even move properly as she contorted all around trying to reach those few spots that no one ever reaches.

Unfortunately, the joke ultimately is still me, as I run away from there not even 10 minutes after I came back to the apartment. But this time with Miku glued to me in a hug and all the girls running after me with their weapons ready saying something like 'cheater', 'pervert' and 'harem idiot'.

Again, I blame Zelretch.


	42. Chapter 37

Castiel P.O.V.

When did my life go so wrong? I mean, most men would want to trade places with me, but I honestly can't feel happy right now.

After all that happened, we spent a few more days in there, and everything was fine… for the others.

In my case I needed to go on a date with a pissed of girlfriend A.K.A. Seryu (that is never a fun experience, a date with an angry girlfriend is never trully fun, but in this case was necessary); talk with Rin about what happened and ask about this marriage (fun fact, I never got much of a choice in this as they sold me out… again. After the twins I am getting used to this shit); Needed to help Serenity in getting around others (she barely speaks to anyone else when I started, and she still not talk much to anyone else); Deal with Miku and help her when she decided to take a break from the stage (she said she realized she didn't like being there that much for quite a while, but never got any true reason to give it up. A marriage was plenty reason for her); and last, but not least, train with Akisame in how to better my muscles, as he wanted to 'help me a bit' (I got a new respect for Okuyasu after that, his teachers is a freaking sadist).

Now we are on a train back to the mountains to see how the training went to the devils, but my situation here is far from perfect.

As we were too many we divided into two carts, in one are Kuroka, Arthur, LeFay, Okuyasu, and Kanda. Yes, he still is here as his mission of guarding Miku for a few more days; which means he is stuck with us for even longer, fact that he dislikes and is very clear and loud about, and the feeling is mutual.

On the other cart, there is me, Seryu, Emily, Miku, Lugh and Serenity (obviously I am using Purity Halo at all times in here, it is not costly to use after all). Problem is, who stays where. It was a fight that almost took an explosive turn (an expression more literal than I would have liked). In the end, it was a rotation between the girls, except for Lugh that was uninterested.

Thank God for the small favors.

As I am enjoying a pudding I bought for myself, while shutting down my mind so as to not listen to all the girls talking about embarrassing stuff (how can 'girls talk' be more dreadful than a study-class with Rin I will never understand), I start to wonder how did the training for Rias and her peerage went.

I hope they are capable enough now. I do need them to win after all.

Oh, I remembered something. I need to take care of this before we get there or it can spell doom for me.

"Lugh, where is that item you stole from Rin? I need it back or she will skin us both alive and don't think she won't. She got a lot of Phoenix tears to use and her fuze is exceptionally short." I said trying to intimidate a bit while hiding the cold sweat rolling down my back.

I like my skin where it is after all and I have no desire to lose it.

She looks like she doesn't want to give it back, even if she knows there is no other chance. After a moment (more like a minute) of internal struggle, she put her hand inside her yukata and took out a very big red gem with a small golden cross embedded into it.

It was the Tohsaka heirloom and a treasure like no other for Rin. It connected her to her family and my father.

When she realized that it was stolen she started a man-hunt for Lugh, and, when she didn't found it, she cried a bit (but if you ask her she will deny crying 100%, she has too much pride for admitting that).

As I received the gem I noticed the absurd amount of energy that is accumulated inside, it was untapped.

"You didn't use it?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. If there is this much magic inside I could attest that it was not used for a long time, longer than the time Lugh has it.

That can only mean that she didn't use it at all, but if she didn't use it why steal it in the first place?

"I didn't use it, never intended to as well." She said with a straight face.

"Why did you steal it in the first place if you never intended to use it?" I asked as not only me, but Seryu and Emily also seem confused about that.

Lugh tilted her head a bit and said as if it was the most obvious and stupid question there is.

"Because it is a treasure."

I face-palmed, just like everyone else in here.

This girl is a pain in the ass, I sometimes wonder 'why is she our friend again?'.

* * *

As we approached the mountains where the training is happening I could hear the sound of pained groans coming from up there. There are just a three more days to the Rating Game and it will be interesting to see how much did they grow in this time period.

Now that I think about it, it will be great for us if they win. It will be free publicity after all, that we managed to train them in such a short period to be a force to be reckoned with will make more devil families try to enter in an alliance with us.

I can almost see the cash coming, devils are loaded with it after all.

"Will you stop that grim already?" Was what Emily suddenly said.

"Heh, let him keep smiling. It is the same smile he has on some missions when he is hunting down a stray, I think that is attractive." Said Seryu that was hugging one of my arms.

She might not have the most impressive body of the girls, but it is still a healthy one… I might be a bit of a pervert. But, it is only with the girls that are with me and that I care about so it is fine. Perverted acts are supposed to be just on this type of scenario (between people that like each other) and not on anyone independent on what they might want.

While deciding to ignore that train of thought I dropped the smile when I sensed some killing intent coming from the top of the mountain, and it was directed at me.

I could hear death approaching from the top of the mountain.

"Cas-kun, why are there more girls surrounding you now than when you left?" and so my judge, jury, and executioner said.

I looked at the petite and beautiful form of Yuno that was getting closer with a frown on her face.

I only had a few moments before I get the Yandere-deluxe treatment so I better say what I planned before.

I hope it works.

I said nothing but went towards her and hugged her fast enough for she not to pull any of her knives and tight enough for she not to move too much.

"Huh?!" Was her reaction to being suddenly hugged.

"I'm sorry that I made you worry about your place with me, but know that I love you and always will." I whispered in her ear, and with that, she melted a bit on my arms.

Again, she is all offense and no defense.

After a moment like this, she calmed down and decided to show her position to the other girls. And it was on the only way she knew (or cared about).

KISS

She kissed my mouth, not that I am against it. It is strange, how her lips were soft and it had an after-taste of strawberry in my mouth. We even did a bit of 'tongue fight' but it was not that long of a kiss.

She then hugged me tighter and whispered in my ear.

"I will want the full explanation later, and if it is not convincing…" She said that while putting her hand close to my crotch and using her nail to cross it over.

Was she saying that she will cut 'it' down?

Please don't cut 'it' down, I like it where it is.

A shiver went down my back with those thoughts, I better hope that the explanation is convincing.

I don't want to become a Varis from Game of Thrones or need to go to Bon Clay's island.

As I was thinking that Yuno took my right hand and started walking ahead, or so she tried because Miku took my whole left arm and embraced it while she too started walking.

Some might look at this and think of 'one flower on each hand' but I look at this as the first step towards Armageddon. What is up with all those flashes of lightning between their staredown?

I wonder if Will Smith will come to save the day this time.

* * *

Somewhere in Hollywood

A black man that was getting ready for his next act on a movie suddenly he got a feeling that somewhere, somehow, there was someone asking the impossible of him.

He simply shocks his head and went to do his job, being awesome and one of the best actors of all time.

* * *

A minute later we arrived at the clearing where everyone was, and by everyone, I meant Rias peerage, Bikou, Kuroko, Kaguya, and Yuzuru. I saw that Rias and her peerage being instructed by Kuroko about teleportation while the others were just sitting around. Looking at that scene I could say for certain one thing.

Rias and her peerage had seen better days.

Kiba looked like he could barely stand and was using a green spandex with many weights. Assassin-sensei probably heard Vert's tips about how to train. Poor guy. *FLASH* *FLASH* I took some pictures to take back to Kuoh, selling those will get me some good money (Rin barely gives me any money so if I have a chance to get some I will get it).

Next to Kiba is Akeno, and I could swear that her hair was straight down when I went on the mission, so why is her hair looking like a super-sayian in between 2 and 3? Did she change races? Except for that her energy was clearly more attuned to thunder as the 'feel' to it was clearly much purer than before.

Next is Rias. She looks fine at first glance but it is clear that she is acting weird, it is just small things that give it away but it is clear that she has not been sleeping well and has a lot on her mind. She probably used that machine, I remember that I was like that as well on the start. Poor girl.

Next is Koneko, she has grown a bit. Literally, she is about 4 centimeters taller and is clearly much more connected to her Yokai side, if her animal parts being out is anything to go by. Another point is that her energy seems to be flowing much more naturally and she is likely much stronger than last time. Not that I could see much, because as soon as she saw the group arriving she hide behind Rias so as to not see Kuroka.

She still has some issues with her sister that needs to be cleared up.

Now there is Gasper, and strangely enough, he seems like the one that changed the most. His hair got a bit longer and its platinum color is now with tones of blue on the tips. He also was emanating confidence and assurance that he didn't have when I left. Also, his magical reserves skyrocketed and now he is close to turning into a low ultimate-class.

.

.

.

.

.

.

How the hell did THAT happen? I even feel threatened by him instinctively. If I was to put into comparison, he is about 20% of Sairaorg right now. He is close to Riser at 40%. And the two are the topmost talents from the young generation from all devil kind.

Dangerous.

And last I see Issei. He is laying down on the ground and cannot move a single muscle but it is obvious that the training had a great effect. His muscles are much more defined and his energy is on the mid mid-class, jumping many levels in only a week. I can only imagine how hard he must have trained. Also, I feel a tint of draconic energy from his magic reserves which means he is in contact with Draig and is in much better control of his gear. The energy that allowed this explosive growth must have come from there.

I can say for certain that they are at the very least two or three times stronger than when I left.

But there are no 'thanks' on their eyes when they look at me, just hate and desire for revenge. Probably due to how the training went down.

Especially Issei that managed to roll himself to look at my direction and saw Miku Izayoi, the popular idol, hugging my arm in an affectionate way.

"Wha-, Ho-, Whe-, Bu-…" and those words 'overwhelming' with meaning keep rolling out of his tongue.

"Full sentences, you need to go for full sentences or others might think you are dumb." I said to him.

It is the truth; you need to speak properly if you want to get your message across.

"Why is Miku-sama clinging to your arm?" He said, probably wanting to look at me but hypnotized by Miku's… assets.

I suddenly want to kick his balls. This might be an arranged marriage, but she still will be my wife and seeing him looking at her like that is pushing one too many buttons.

"She is here because-"

"I wanted to be with darling." She said hugging me even closer.

The looks I am getting from the girls hurt, especially Kuroko's and the twins' looks. In the case of the twins, there is even a slight change in the atmosphere and I swear that there should not have been dark clouds in the sky right now.

.

.

.

I wonder if Zelretch is enjoying the show?

… who am I kidding, he is probably eating popcorn while watching right now.

"B-but since WHEN do you even KNOW Miku-sama?" He said, finally looking at me.

"I met her around 7 days ago." I said with a straight face.

His shocked face was funny, almost cartoonish to be honest. What, with his eyes bulging a bit and his mouth left hanging.

However, this reaction was quickly changed to one of anger as he said.

"Why is it that while I am training myself this much you are going out to pick up chick? Was that the 'mission' you were given?" He said in almost a shout. "Fuck, it must be good to be a bishounen. You don't need to do anything and chicks fall into your lap." Not only him but everyone else of the peerage was having the same reaction.

My own reaction to this comment, however, was very different. This mission was a load of shit, I had to fight many times and almost died more than once (the most dangerous being the times was when the girls were chasing me with their weapons, but that is beside the point), had to deal with a lot of emotions and face off against those twisted fuckers of Iscariots.

This was NOT a good mission.

"You know jack-shit about what I had to go through during this time period, so don't go jumping to conclusions." I said with a glare.

But even with me liberating some of my killing intent, there was someone else that was liberating even more of it than me.

Serenity.

And she was pissed.

She even started walking toward Issei, a cold glean on her eyes. I quickly took her hand so as to not let her go any further, God knows that she is 'a tiny bit' overprotective of me (except when the problem is women, that is the one moment that I need help and she happily joins in on the 'enemy' side).

"Calm down, everything is fine." I said to her looking directly at her eyes. Unfortunately, she still refuses to let go of her skull mask, but at least she is a bit more open on her actions.

As she felt my hand on hers she stopped and looked straight into my eyes for an instant before she turned her head to the side and said in a voice that was close to a whisper.

"Let go, it tickles." She said, asking me to let go of her hand even though she was putting no effort into actually taking her hand away.

After she said that I left her hand (it was incredibly smooth and gentle to touch by the way), mostly due to Yuno start to release a wave of displeasure aimed at me, after all, it was the hand that she was holding that is now holding Serenity's.

"Furry. Please explain what is going on, Castiel." Yuzuru said with a blanc face and tone, but her hand tightened quite a bit.

"Contractor for life, what sort of lust demon has possessed you for you to be acting like this?" Kaguya, on the other hand, is much less 'composed' as she pointed straight at my face and shouted that.

"*buaahhh* W-Why did you get more girls Oni-sama? You didn't even go on a date with me yet! Why? *buaahhh*" Kuroko managed to make anime tears, don't ask me how but she managed to make them.

Seeing this situation, I sighed and decided to call for a meeting among everyone here so as to explain what happened on the mission.

I was thinking about calling just the girls, but Rias and her peerage would misunderstand what happened and it would be a pain in the ass later if I let them have misunderstandings now. Also, if she understands the danger that Iscariots is and that they might one day target her and Kuoh maybe she would try to raise the security measures.

* * *

After I finished explaining everything to them the reaction of most of them was as expected.

All of them had serious faces as they 'digested' the information I gave them. Iscariots and the danger they represent.

"I get that your mission was worse than hell, I live there so I can say, but I want to ask something." Rias said after a while. She is much calmer and collected, it is like she managed to mature quite a bit.

I can respect that. A leader should be like that after all.

"Ask away." I said to her.

"Who is that one?" She said pointing to Lugh.

"This is Lu-"

"I am his slave." She said with a straight face, obviously taking pleasure on the fact that the girls were looking at me with 'blood murder' on her eyes. "He made me sign a contract that forces me to work for him and never to disobey him for the rest of my life." She said and in the end, she even gave a fake sob, as if she was crying.

Again, I can't understand why she still is a friend.

"*sigh* Let me explain before you guys jump to conclusions." I said. "Her name is Lugh. She is a stray member of Judgment and she had gone to Iscariot's to look for someone there. She came back to us, but honestly, I could not trust her at all so I put as a condition that she enters a master-servant contract with me so as to make sure that she would not run away again or do something to prejudice the Tower." I explained.

The guys from the Tower could understand my reasons as they knew her well enough, but Rias was different.

"And why couldn't she be trusted? Or even NEED to go to the Tower? If she wanted I could have added her to my peerage, the energy that is emanating from her indicates that she would be a wonderful addition." She said with a serious face. "If you give her to me I will try to help you in anything you may need and make the connection between our groups closer. I will even transfer half of a mine that has large amounts of magic metal that can be used for weaponry creation."

She really is desperate for help, huh. She must feel that she is not fully capable of defeating Riser so she is doing what she can.

BUT, it doesn't mean I will listen to her requests.

"The reason why she cannot be trusted is due to she being a thief, no other way to say it. Also, I refuse your request to 'give her' to you as she is not an object or a peerage member. She is a human, annoying as she is, and I will not sell her out." I said to Rias who pouted just a bit.

I guess even Rias was not that confident about this deal going through, or else she would not have accepted what I said without haggling a bit.

"Thank you, Castiel. Just for that let me give you something." Lugh said as she started fumbling with her Yukata before taking out a small hairpin.

A moment later I heard someone start to fumble in his clothes before an irate voice came from my back.

"That is mine. Give it back now and I will cut you in half, refuse and I will cut you into many pieces." And before I could even try to explain anything a sword came towards. I jumped ahead so as to avoid the strike, turning around to face an enraged Kanda that was looking between me and the hairpin that was on my hand with bloodshot eyes.

Meanwhile, Lugh was in the back trying not to laugh at the situation, pure mirth on her eyes.

Again, why is she still a 'friend' of mine?

She is more of a devil than Rias, and Rias IS a born-devil.

As I avoided Kanda strikes I noticed that some of the others were taking out their weapons to help, but so many people attacking at the same place could only men one thing.

BBBBOOOOOMMMMMMMM

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I hope the price to rebuild this doesn't go on my paycheck… Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it is.

Instant ramen, here I go.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I will be going out for a test this weekend so there will be no chapters until Monday night or Tuesday night.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and any questions are more than welcome, I also want to warn that the Rias vs Raiser fight will show more of the development that everyone had in the peerage and will start to show more of a good side from them. They will show that they are NOT following the same development pattern that they did in CANON DxD and that in this fic they will be getting much stronger than in the CANON.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and untill next time.**

 **Bye.**


	43. Chapter 38

Castiel P.O.V.

Since the day that we came back I have been overseeing the training of Rias and her peerage as most of the others that were training them had things they needed to do.

And I must say, I am impressed.

They grow at an unbelievable speed, they must be liberating their potential now and later the speed of advancement will stagnate somewhat, but for now, it would work.

I am now overseeing Issei's combat training. There are 2 days before the match so I decided to do a light spar now that it is closing in on the dusk as tomorrow would be a 'rest' day to be used to recover and heal.

Not that my version of 'light spar' is that light (I blame Lancer-sensei for that).

As I catch Issei's leg that was aimed at my face (he, strangely enough, keeps aiming at it for some time now) I look at him and started to talk.

"You are doing great. Your movements are sharp and precise, while the power is good enough." I said, and I meant it. This guy is surprising me, he actually managed to go through with the proper training with considerable persistence and that I can say is a great thing. "Now let's see what you can do with your magic, you did learn a bit right?"

He looks a bit nervous and started looking to the side, clearly embarrassed.

"Hehe, actually I could not get it right. I just couldn't do it at all when Draig tried to explain to me, and he was the only one I could ask because Mister 2-sensei (writer's note: Bon Clay sometimes call himself Mister 2 due to thinking that the number 1 is Ivankov) does not use magic at all." He said a bit embarrassed.

I nod at that; it was a possibility after all.

"Would you like to learn some of it then?" I asked, already imagining some of the magics I could teach him. Nothing too complicated or time consuming to learn but something basic is possible.

He then started nodding his head very fast, clear excitement on his face. The corner of my lips must be displaying a slight smile, he really reminds me of myself when I was small on this characteristic. The desire to learn a new magic (something cool being preferred) always made me act like this.

As I see this I move my feet a bit and took down Issei as I still had one of his feet on my hand.

THUD

"Ouch," he said as he fell on the ground. "was this really necessary." He asked while getting up, a frown on his face.

"For the training no, but for ogling Miku yesterday it was." I said with a serious face.

Hearing this he could only scratch the back of his head and look apologizing to me. He knows he was in the wrong on that.

As I give him a hand so as to get him up I started to think about what is the best way to teach him.

If I remember right is elemental affinity is fire and imagination (let's ignore his nature for now), so he must try something a bit out there to get the best results.

An idea came to my mind, one that can be very interesting.

"Have you ever watched needless or played mortal kombat?" I asked as I hope he did because it would make things much easier.

His eyes sparkled even more when I said that.

"Of course I did! I quite liked Mortal Kombat, but if I had to choose I prefer Needless." He said while nodding his head. "Needless have a lot of ecchi scenes, a lot of panty shots, but the action is very well developed and very intense. Plus, the comedy is great, truly a wonderful work."

I could not help but nod in agreement. It might be quite a bit over the top but it still is among my favorite anime and manga.

"So you can remember some of those movements? Like 'little boy' or 'volcanic explosion'?" I asked.

He quickly nodded, he seems to remember them well enough.

"If I remember correctly you have an elemental affinity fire and imagination. If you can get a clear image of what the result you want is you could probably use those sort of movements." I said my hypothesis to him.

I cannot say for certain if it will work, but devils have a natural affinity with magic to the point of being capable of skipping most of the process other races need to go through to use magic and, as Issei is one step above that due to his elemental affinity, he should be capable of creating this simple spells very quickly.

As he heard my hypothesis he seemed to get excited and decided to start testing.

He first put his hand back and tried to push magic at it, but when he punched there was barely a spark on his hand.

He tried again but the result did not change even after he repeated it at least 5 times.

"It doesn't work at all, what can I do Emyia-san?" he asked with a confused and upset face.

What can he do, huh?

Now that is a good question, but what can he do to actually use his powers completely?

.

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.

I am an idiot for even asking.

"*sigh* Try to imagine that those flames are burning the clothes of a cute girl." I said, trying to not let my eye twitch too hard because of my own words.

It seemed like my comment sparked an idea in him and he quickly tried again.

" **Little Boy!** " He said after about 5 seconds to charge as his fist was clad in flames, and powerful ones at that. He punched a rock I had put in front of him and the rock almost melted.

A truly incredible flame, and dangerous too. If only he could reach such results without the need to imagine perverted acts or images I would say that he got amazing talent, but as I know what he is thinking I will never say that out of sheer spite and principle.

I am a petty person sometimes after all, every leader must be in some areas in the end as it helps make them a bit more human (I have no desire to be the 'perfect king' that Saber was in the past at all).

"Good work, now you got to practice that move. Keep repeating it until you cannot any more so as to get a better feel of this magic and to know what is your current limit and see if you can make the activation time faster." I said to him.

This was the way I trained, after seeing what is my upper limit I would start working in how to modify what was necessary and see what I could do with it to make it more efficient (my circuits are trash quality after all).

As he nodded he started using his 'little boy' over and over again and after about 15 hits he could not use it again, to the point that he dropped on the ground out of exhaustion (as it is the first time he is using this spell he might have gone too far without realizing).

I used a blessing on him so as to help him recover faster. The bad side of this blessing is that it might help recover the body faster but is useless in combat as it needs that the one under its effect remains resting during the blessing time.

"It seems like 15 is your current limit. Not particularly great, but it still is not bad for a beginner." I told him. "After you recover you can try to see if focusing more energy on the little boy would make it more effective and how strong you can make one."

He nodded as he recovered from the tiredness. After 10 seconds he could sit up again, he seemed to be a bit better now. This blessing is quite strong after all, even if useless in actual combat.

"Now, why don't you try Scorpio's fire breath?" I said, and he tried as soon as he recovered.

He failed, as expected.

The only thing he managed was to burn his tongue and to liberate hot air. It seems that he doesn't know how much air he needs to take in and how the fire should go.

Sighing I decided to give him an idea of an image to help him.

"Try to imagine that your blow is lifting girls' skirts, but put fire on the blow." I said.

He instantly went silent for a moment before his nose started bleeding.

If it was someone else that got his nose bleeding during magic training I would stop the training (who knows when an accident may happen when training magic after all), but knowing it was Issei I could only say one thing.

"If you are imagining one of the girls that are with me I WILL give you a reason to bleed."

He instantly straightened up and cleaned his nose, taking a serious face.

"No such thing, Emyia-san. I can assure you I was not thinking about their magnificent and wonderful oppai, and what there is under their skirt's." He said that, but I was not stupid enough to believe it. What, with his eyes refusing to look at me and taking such a deep interest in a three.

He is far too honest about everything, would make a terrible leader if that is his normal reaction. I honestly don't even know if I call him too inocent or too pervert for his own good.

"Do you want an invitation to start trying what I said or what? Go, go, go." I said irritated when he seemed to have forgotten what he was doing.

Note to self, train his reaction time and focus. He still is struggling with that.

As he started practicing he could use the breath quite well, but the fire was quite weak. It seems like this one will remain on hold for now, either he will have to practice more or wait until his magic amount is higher.

"Stop." I said making the sign for him to stop. "It seems that this one is quite widespread but weak. The best you can do with this is a firewall to blind your opponents for a while." I told him and he seemed quite dejected by it. "Look at the bright side, now you got two usable spells to work with so you can do more now. What you got to do for the rest of tonight is practice the magic you got. You may actually be the turning point of this match." I said for encouragement, and to be fair, if there is to be a turning point it would be Gasper.

The kid seems to have gotten crazy strong for some reason, and I got a similar feeling that I got from Serenity coming from him, but smaller and far from the same balance and level.

Really strange.

Issei seemed to have taken my words to the heart and pumped his arm while saying 'let's do this'.

Let's leave him with this. I have other things to do and he needs to self-study if he wants truly advance.

* * *

At dinner time we all were in the cafeteria (this place is very well equipped) and I was having a bit of trouble as the twins wanted me to spoon feed them. I have not been spending much time with either of them so I agreed to it.

Their excited face made me feel guilty inside since I am their fiancé I should try to spend more time with them.

Now that I am doing it, a troubling matter is happening. That, while doing this with them in itself is no problem (they are beautiful girls and I liked them just as much as they liked me), but the eyes that the rest of the girls were looking at me was enough to make me sweatdrop quite a lot.

"Aahh~~"

"Pleading. Aahh~~"

You know what? Seeing the two of them like this makes all the water I am losing on sweat worth it.

Suddenly someone approached me, someone that must be so dense that could not read the mood if it hit him on the face.

"Hey, Emyia-san can I ask you something?" Issei said, making Yuzuru and Kaguya pout from the disturbance on our little moment.

I tried to not smile fondly seeing them pout (these two are so cute) as I decided to talk to him.

"Sure, but make it quick as I am sort of in the middle of something here." I said, hoping that he would catch on what I meant.

"Well, here is the thing that has been bugging me. Why did you manage to teach me so fast those magics while Ddraig could not?" Issei asked.

"Simple, because he is a dragon and, for him, magic is different than for a human or a devil. Also, he must have misunderstood how magic for you should work." I explained.

"What do you mean? Is my magic different somehow?" Issei asked.

"Quite. To explain it fully would take way too long, but to make it simple you can think like this: all devils have a certain facility to use magic as it is almost instinctive for them, to the point that some just have to imagine what they want and it happens. While this method is extremely bad in its cost-efficiency on your case due to your elemental affinity being fire and imagination you can use a similar method with a much better cost-efficiency. That is why you can make a few things that, for all logic should not be possible with your magic, a reality." I explained to him.

He seemed a bit lost in my explanation so I decided to put in even simpler terms.

"You can use your magic to make what you imagine a reality." I said, and it was mostly true. He CAN use his magic energy to make a lot of things, but even so, he must practice what he knows until the use of said magic he learned have become instinctive and not wasteful.

As he mulled thing over a flash happened on his eyes as an idea surged on his head (this guy is too open about himself). He then gave me thanks and went out of the cafeteria, probably going to practice his ' **little boy** ' or try to create a new magic.

I guess I will see the result later because right now I have something more important to take care of.

My two pouting fiancés. This two HATE to be ignored, truly and completely hate that, and I have not corresponded as well as I should so this reaction is normal.

The only thing they hate more than being ignored is being apart from one another.

Not knowing what to do to make them happy (or at least not want to kill me) I decided to say what I believe is the best.

"Please don't be mad at me. I was just instructing him as I do need to make sure that he is in the best possible condition for the match." I said pleading my case.

But as all men know, a woman can be crazy and unreasonable from time to time.

"Denial. You just didn't care."

"To think that the one that will share an eternal soul contract with this me prefers to pay attention to the king of lust over me. I am disappointed."

See, totally unreasonable.

In this situations, I cannot just let things blow over with time as they might blow on my face so I did the best I could.

"Please don't be mad at me, you know that I prefer to be with you girls over talking with him or any men in any day or place. It is just that the situation required it." I then had an idea. "How about I take you girls out for a fun day? We can go anywhere you want."

I said to the two of them.

"Wonder. Do you really mean that?"

"Of course. You girls are important so it is the least I could do to make you two more comfortable." I said to the two of them, and I meant it.

After a moment they both put their pinky finger out and asked.

"Confirmation. "Promise?""

I smiled and extended both my hands and did the pinky promise I used in the past with them.

"I promise."

They both smiled and got close to me again, one on each side.

I am happy now (especially since I am ignoring all those envious looks from the other girls).

* * *

Two days later

I am now on a watching room, waiting to see the results of the training that Rias and her peerage got after the training. I can only hope that everything goes according to plan, or I just might lose my hide (Rin does NOT want to see MacGregor, and she might dish out on me if this goes wrong).

As I, the girls, Bikou, Arthur and LeFay (Kuroka isn't here as she 'technically' still is a criminal for the devil community) were waiting for the match to start I heard the noise of people entering the room.

As I turned to see who it is I saw a tall imposing man with long crimson-red hair entering the room, accompanied by two others. One of them is a gorgeous woman with silver platinum hair in a braid using a classic maid uniform, the other one is a slightly slim man, he was wearing a black yukata with the borders in red and in his back a flame symbol, he also was using simple Japanese sandals. He had short straight black hair, pointy ears, pale silver eyes fixed in an eternal glare and a horn right in the middle of his forehead.

These three are the Maou Syrzechs Lucifer, his queen Grayfia Lucifurge and his mutation pawn Hozuki.

"Lucifer-sama, I am glad to see you in good health." I said to Sirzechs, it is necessary to maintain a certain decorum when dealing with important individuals from other groups after all. "While I am glad to see you again after so long I must ask, why did you decide to grace us with your presence instead of staying on your own original cabin? I heard that most of the high-ranked devils are in there after all."

He smiled in my direction and this is probably one of the first times I understood why Issei hated bishounens and ikemen, because I am feeling the same thing looking at Sirzechs pretty face right now.

It is not logical, but fuck logic.

"Ah, there you are. You are the representative of the Tohsaka Tower to watch this game, correct?" Sirzechs said and I nodded. "Good, it is nice to meet you. And answering your question I came here with three objectives, first to greet whoever was on the Tower cabin and give my personal thanks for helping out my sister."

"No thanks are necessary I can assure you. It was a business transaction and, as such, it is only natural to do your part to your very best to do whatever we can to follow it through with the correct amount of respect." I said, giving a little stab at him because of what happened between the Tower and the Gremory clan. We were allied then, but he allowed for some of his subordinates to run rampant in the Tower. Not only did he not do anything to stop it he hasn't even punished any of them for their actions.

At this moment he may have my respect as a superior warrior (which he is, he is probably stronger than most Gods and he got there by training and sheer effort, I can't help but respect that), but his actions let me not being capable of respecting him as a leader. A king should never do things this way, he must know how to keep the correct appearance and respect his allies and to make sure to not allow nothing to tarnish his image on a serious way as long as he can help it.

On this regard, I think Zekran Bael, the oldest devil right now. He is a much greater leader than Sirzechs in my opinion. He knows how to act and has thousands upon thousands of plans, he knows to be firm with everyone, including himself.

"Well, that actually connects to a second reason for me to be here. I cannot allow for my peerage members to follow the contract." Sirzechs said, dropping the smile.

I did not falter because of it, I already imagined that he would do something like this and even guessed that it would be now that the match is about to start as it is the moment when the threat of 'no training' turned useless and even if the contract is undone there will be no real change of stance between the two sides.

But, did he really think it would be that simple.

"And why is that?" I said, pretending to not understand the reasoning.

"Simple, as I am not a Gremory since the day that I took the name of Lucifer my sister cannot order anything from my peerage." He said smoothly. I got to appreciate him, such a thick skin to the point that he is not embarrassed to say such a thing. He even gave his son the name Gremory, making him the next heir after Rias and he took all advantages he could when we were allied to the Gremory clan however now he says he is not a Gremory.

I really got to admire such a thick skin.

Not that I don't have it as well.

"I understand. So that means that the contract is to be turned null and that we don't really get any obligation to help your sister or clan anymore." I said nodding with a serious face, but then a 'passing thought' happened. "it may tarnish Rias name for a while, but it will probably not be anything too much. Especially since with the way things are going on the human world she wouldn't have to mind it at all."

He looked puzzled, the same was true for Grayfia and… probably for Hozuki? I don't know as he always has the same serious face.

"What are you talking about? What things are going?" Grayfia asked, clearly curious and worried about the situation. She was a woman that seemed cold but always put the good of the Gremory house above all else.

She was a truly great woman for a leader to have by his side, attentive, careful and always willing to help. But I still think I got the better deal since my girls are less intimidating... sometimes.

"'The things going on' you say? You really don't know?" I asked with some seriousness in my voice, indicating the danger that is about.

GULP

"Yeah, so tell us what is happening? Is it dangerous for Ria-tan?" Sirzechs asked and I think my and Hozuki reactions are about the same, a twitching eye at the use of that word. Why did he use Ria-tan? I thought only Serafall used such terms.

Breathing so as to calm down I decided to explain.

"Iscariots are acting in Japan and from our last combat against them they revealed that they were creating some monsters that seem especially effective against devils." I said and it was like a bomb to them. I had warned Rias but she did not have time to say anything to her family as she was on training up until yesterday so for them this is news.

Terrible news.

Iscariots were infamous for their hate for the supernatural creatures and devils in especial, so knowing that an organization that dangerous started to act close to his sister's place was enough to put Lucifer in a worried state.

But then he calmed down and said, probably to himself more than anyone else.

"It is okay; we can just send ultimate-class guards or call her back. Yes, that should work." He kept mumbling something along the lines of 'must protect Ria-tan' or something, but I filtered that.

Then I simply shacked my head in denial and said.

"It would not work. The Japanese Pantheon is barely accepting Rias and Sona in Japan, and that only because their power levels still are not developed enough to be any threat. If you send any ultimate-class, it could be seen as an act of war." I said before he decided to do something stupid due to his emotions.

Gremorys are just that emotive and impulsive after all.

"Also, if you recalled Rias it would possible be seen as either running away in the first sign of danger OR that she is abandoning her duty as overseer of Kuoh. In either of them, it would show weakness on her part and possible make the claims of some of the Gods from the Japanese Pantheon to get Kuoh back a reality." I said, cutting of his possible actions.

He seemed lost at those words, not knowing what to do. Then he decided to ask.

"But if we cannot act there that easily, how can you guys from the Tower do any different?" He seemed to have calmed down somewhat.

Before I could talk another voice came from the room.

"Because he is my darling." Miku said as she walked straight towards us, positioning herself at my side.

Syrzechs sized her up and asked.

"And who might you be?"

"My name is Miku Okami and I am the daughter of Ame-no-Muzume-no-Mikoto and Sarutahiko Okami. I and Castiel are engaged and as such the Tower and the Japanese Pantheon are closely linked, so the Tower movements in OUR country is not constrained." Miku said domineeringly, showing a lot of confidence.

But I knew that she was likely scared inside as she was not that used to talks to dignitaries from other species. Knowing that I took her hand so as to calm her down a bit, which seems to have worked a bit as she squeezed my hand a bit.

Seeing our action seemed to have put Sirzechs in a tough spot, and people in tough spots could do things without thinking it through so I decided to take a step back.

"How about we all take a step back and simply watch the match? It is for this that we all are here after all." I said so as to change the course of this conversation.

Sirzechs seemed reluctant but Hozuki intervened.

"That would be appreciated." He said.

Sirzechs turned to him to protest but one glare from Hozuki was enough to make THE Lucifer back down and obey.

Again, Hozuki is scary.

Suddenly I got a thought on my mind and could not help but ask.

"If I remember right you said that there were three reasons about why you came here, so what is the third one?" I asked, making Sirzechs readjust himself and say.

"It is nothing much. It is just that there are some individuals that requested to come to watch this match but their presence would be complicated on the room with the other devils so I thought they here to watch as this is the only room without other devils." He said and even if I was not pleased by it the room we are is devil property so demanding it as ours would not be that appropriate.

I could only accept the fact that the room would have Sirzechs, his group and a few others.

I wonder who they are.

"Hey there Syrzechs, why didn't you tell me that it was this room that we were going to stay? I ended up barging into a room where two female devils were getting kinky and the moment they noticed me was quite awkward, not that I minded the little kinky sho-"

And faster than anyone could react Emily punched the man talking.

Normally I would admonish her for punching the leader of a faction in the face, but considering that it was the father that abandoned his family the moment he heard the word 'pregnant' I could only contain myself not to applaud Emily's actions and join in.

And so entered in the room the leader of the Grigory and the fallen angels, Azazel.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. And finally the game is about to start, we saw a bit of the training of Issei and in case of those who never watched needless the Little Boy is basically a flaming punch.**

 **Also, if there is any doubt about what is happening or you want to make a suggestion to the future be free to do so. And to those who think that Castiel was a 'bad person' by using Rias' safety in Japan to force things to go his way remember that Syrzechs is there to cancel the contract AFTER Rias got the help and training. Azazel being there is partially to see Emily (he still cares for her a LOT, but he was an asshole by running away back then) and the other part was to see the sacred gears, but the biggest motivator to go see the rating game was another fallen angel that wanted to go there.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed, and please understand that when I say I will publish a chapter I will publish a said chapter on time.**

 **Next is coming out in 3 or 4 days, kingcarlos out.**


	44. Chapter 39

Castiel P.O.V.

This must be one of the toughest moments of my life. I mean seeing one of the most influential man in the world, the leader of the fallen angels and Grigori, a man that was capable of battling the Hebrew God himself and survive, a man known for his superior intellect and control of the light element, being beaten down by his 16 years old daughter is hilarious, pure gold.

Especially since his adopted child, Vali, was watching with an expression that was a perfect replica of a dead fish.

CLICK,

I just couldn't resist that and discreetly took a photo (with the flash turned off).

"My precious child I am so happy to see that you are fin-"

CRUNCH

"M-My f-f-f-f-f-future descendants..."

And that was the sound of her foot connecting to the region between his legs, plus the resulting whimper.

Pretty sure that with the force she applied, Emily must have made every male within a couple hundred miles feel phantom pains on their crotches which resulted in them covering them protectively.

I'm sure as hell no exception. (Hey, even I'm a virgin, you know!)

As the man that barely stood up left those words before falling again, I could only think that this is hilarious despite my situation.

Unfortunately (in my opinion), this show needed to stop. I could not allow for her to keep beating the man, no matter how much he deserved it (leaving the woman he said he loved the instant she said that she was pregnant is a VERY low thing to do).

"That is enough Emily." I said putting a hand (the one that was not holding Miku's surprisingly soft hand) on her shoulders. It was not just to stop her from continuing, but also to show that I am here for her in this complex moment.

This is the first time in a long while that she has seen Azazel and it always brings out bad thoughts to her. I remember once when she told me that she was a bad girl because she was the reason why her parents separated, I told her that it was not her fault and that she should punch her father for doing it instead of feeling bad for herself.

Hoh, now that I remember I also held her shoulder back them just like this. Except that my other hand was not holding another girl, but that is beside the point.

Seeing Azazel getting up, not that anyone helped (Vali was just staring at it all with a perplexed and amused face after regaining his composure), Azazel looked at my direction and shot me a look of appreciation for not allowing his daughter to continue beating his 'little me'.

Well, the appreciation lasted until he noticed my hand on Emily's shoulder. After that, it was just what I think would be parental anger and protectiveness, not that I will care in the slightest for the thoughts of an absent father who ran away from his responsibilities much like my mother.

Not one bit.

As Azazel tried to take a step forward I noticed that he could not do it well as his legs were bent a bit and he could not walk properly. Seeing this I realized that Emily might have hit him a bit too hard in there. If there is actually a wound that could negatively affect his virility, and that wound being caused by a member of the Tower no less, those fallen that just wanted an excuse to start fighting would try to wage war against us.

Damn politics and warmongers. Those two never should be together, but they tend to be closely connected more often than not.

I turned around to look for one guy that could help in this situation.

Good thing I found him quickly otherwise this could have gotten ugly.

"Okuyasu, would you come here and heal this guy?" I said to the others in the room.

"Sure thing Cas." He said and then walked toward Azazel, but before he could touch him Vali put himself in the way.

"That would be enough. I can't allow for you guys to continue to beat Azazel any further, he is the one who raised me and is my step-father after all." Vali said and at that moment I felt Emily tremble a bit.

Before I could stop her she ran out of the room, leaving without another word. I need to go see her as fast as possible, because I know that, despite how she likes to portrait herself, she is actually very sensitive about this subject.

But first I need to deal with this prick that with one sentence made my friend sad.

"We are just trying to offer Azazel-sama treatment, nothing more. Now please step aside, lizard bastard." I said to Vali, who responded by giving me an amused look and said.

"Try and force me, pathetic heir." And then he tried to punch me away.

Main word being 'tried' since at the moment he tried to move in for a punch he was surrounded instantly by Serenity and Kuroko. Serenity with a dagger close to his neck and Kuroko with a black-key directly positioned towards his heart.

"Hoh, and I was thinking that you guys were completely useless, at least you have some bite to accompany the bark." He said with the cockiest smile I have ever seen.

He probably believes that he is fully capable of surviving anything we throw at him, fool. I heard that he developed a giant ego, but this goes beyond what I remember from the last time we met and he never needed to have a bigger ego.

"That is enough of the three of you." Azazel said, liberating part of his power.

It is massive. An amount that showed that he could crush me with the tip of his pinky without even trying, a power fitting of someone on the Leader-class.

As we all felt that Serenity and Kuroko both took a step back. Then Azazel looked at me and asked.

"It has been a while, Castiel Emyia. The son of the sword incarnate." He asked me after he stopped flashing his powers.

"It is an honor to meet you again, and I must apologize for the outburst of Fujimura-chan but she could not control herself. I think she never had a strong paternal image to teach her how to act, but again, she never really got an option, wouldn't you say?" I said, noticing how for an instant got a hurt look on his face.

Seeing that look I needed to force myself even more to keep smiling at him. How could he act hurt after what he did to Taiga and Emily? He abandoned them like that when they needed him the most and now he acts like this, how can he dare to call himself a man if he can't even take responsibility for his actions?

No, Castiel you must calm down. You must act in an appropriate way to your position. Any and all actions may reflect on the Tower so I cannot act like that. Hide your emotions for now, you must not let them see you as weak. Just keep it inside and when you are strong enough you can go and teach this feathered bastard a lesson.

"I see, and no harm was done my boy." He then looked at the state of things and said. "And I also apologize for Vali's reaction, he is always looking for new people to fight and he heard of the Tower and how some of you guys are strong so he must have been too excited."

Vali did not look bothered by any of it, just kept staring with a condescending and 'holier than thou' attitude. Again, he is a prick.

Seeing that Vali was not moving a muscle Azazel looked a bit pissed and said.

"Vali, stand back." And, after a bit of a face-off, he did. "Now, you were saying something about healing me, correct? Normally it would not be necessary but, in this case, I might need it." He said while showing that he could not take one step forward without wincing.

I will buy Emily an ice cream for this, in part to help calm her nerves but mostly to congratulate her in inflicting pain in someone who deserved it.

"Yes, we would like for Okuyasu here to heal you." Okuyasu waved a bit in the back, not afraid or bothered about all of this. He was raised with monster teachers and as I was raised in a similar setting I know that it makes someone deal with those with greater power much better.

"Hoh, and how does he intends to heal me? Is it a healing magic, or perhaps twilight healing?" He asked, clearly curious.

"Okuyasu here has a sacred gear capable of-"

"Sacred gear? Show me, show me, show me." Azazel said, and there were almost stars coming out of his eyes.

He was a well know sacred gear fanatic so wanting to see a sacred gear and getting that excited by it was a natural occurrence, or so I heard.

I'm just surprised by him not acting like this with Kuroko, but that is likely because her gear is internal and don't have much of an external vibe so it could be confused by just normal magic.

"Fine, fine calm down. Okuyasu would you mind healing him?" I said.

"Sure thing, let's get this shit over with." And with those words, Okuyasu's hands were covered by the two gloves. However, before he could touch Azazel and heal him Azazel took his hand and… a microscope?

I don't know exactly why but he got a microscope and started analyzing Okuyasu's sacred gear with extreme interest. The excitement in his body visible for all to see.

How a man can act like that when his daughter just punched him in the face and kicked his balls before leaving the room like that is beyond my understanding, but I need to put an end to this as I don't know how long I can keep myself from saying something that he deserves to listen. And who knows how he would react to my words, maybe even kill me from hearing too much truth.

"That should be plenty enough admiring Okuyasu's hand, now let him make the healing." And, no answer. The man was completely engrossed with Okuyasu's sacred gear.

Sighing I motioned for Okuyasu to just touch Azazel in any way and be done with it.

As Okuyasu touched Azazel's hand (or more like Azazel touched Okuyasu's sacred gear) the effect was immediate. Azazel no longer felt anything whatsoever, which is kind of a shame.

As Azazel was marveling with the effects of the sacred gear I turned to Sirzechs.

"Lucifer-sama, I am sorry but we will be taking our leave now. It would be improper for us from the Tower to stay in the middle of your two sides when you are discussing business. No need to worry as we will be going to some of our trusted allies sides now so we will surely see the spectacular performance of your sister in this game of pretend war. Now then, until the next time for you and your entourage." I said while motioning for the others to follow me.

Even this little farewell with him had meaning, and it could be counted as another stab at him. I mentioned that we were going to be staying with an ally, meaning that I am not seeing him as an ally at the moment and also by putting that Rias is in a Game and not in a real life and death situation would put some pressure on his side as no matter how well she goes it doesn't mean it will go just like that well out there in real life.

I must say, talking with all those hidden meanings is quite tiresome. I'd much rather be direct with what I want to say, but there is a time and place for everything and acting in a certain way is necessary when you got some responsibilities to bear.

As we were all leaving I noticed how Vali looked to Serenity's ass. I normally would try to contain myself, but today is already too tiresome and I am not in the mood to keep talking in all this encrypted bullshit.

"Hey, white lizard. Keep staring and I will pluck those eyes of yours and use them as a trophy as well as broadcast a VERY interesting story I heard from Ivankov about two lizards in their fight for 'supremacy'." When I said that Vali did not seem to understand, but when his sacred gear came out of his back and started flashing a lot. I know the message came across.

Not wanting to stay there for another second I left the room and directed everyone else to the Bael's room. I knew that the only one there right now is Sairaorg and his peerage and the dude is a longtime friend so he would not mind at all. I wanted to go to the Phoenix room, but I know that it would be improper of us to go there right now as we did train the ones fighting against Riser. Shame, I wanted to see if Ravel is doing okay, she is a childhood friend of mine after all, just as Riser is.

The two are among the best devils someone can meet out there, but thinking about Ravel usually makes me absolutely mad thanks to a certain ASSHOLE! SON OF A BITCH! HOPE HE DIES A THOUSAND DEATHS AND THAT HIS SOUL IS PUT THROUGH ETERNAL TORTURE ON THE DARKEST PITS OF HELL FOR WHAT HE ALMOST DID TO THAT INNOCENT AND SWEAT GIRL! HOW CAN HE DARE CALL HIMSELF A MAN, HE IS THE WORSE BLASPHEMY TO THE VERY TERM! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DI... wow, I really went out there. I must not think about him right now. I already am not in the best state of mind and thinking about that... individual is not doing me any favors.

Let's leave these thoughts and images of possible tortures to put him through when I am going to sleep later tonight because if my dreams are filled with his shrieks of pain and suffering I am sure I will sleep that much better. Like a sweat and wonderful lullaby.

I asked Yuno to go lead the others to Sairaorg's place while I left I went to search for Emily. I knew that she would be in some corner around here, probably not wanting to talk with anyone.

Soon enough I found her. She was on a corner, hidden from the general view by some plants that were there.

I saw that her eyes were a bit swollen and red, obvious signs of her crying alone, but choose not to mention that. I simply smiled at her and said.

"There you are. Come on, we are going to watch something fun and everything will be just fine. We have relocated to Sairaorg's room so you will not have to deal with that again." I then offered a hand and said. "Are you coming with me or what?"

Hesitantly, and without saying anything she took my extended hand. You know, I rarely ever hold her hand but it is surprisingly good to touch. It is like her hand is comfortable like a feather to touch, kind of reminds me of her wings.

As I started guiding her to where the others were Emily decided to break the silence.

"*weak laugh* This brings me back."

"What exactly?" I asked.

"You come looking for me whenever I am feeling down and bringing me back to the others. It is just like back then." She said in a way like she was looking at a distant memory.

I could not help but give a giggle from that comment and talk back.

"Yeah, I remember. Like the time when you got upset about your father and after I brought you back Yuno saw us and started chasing you across the Tower, but with a chainsaw instead of knives." I said, enjoying her shudder at that memory.

"Y-yeah," she then used her free hand to punch me on the shoulder, it hurts a bit but not much. "THAT was for showing her 'The Texas Chain Saw'. Dick move by the way."

I could only start to laugh, and she started laughing as well. The mood she was on was mostly gone by now.

After that, we continued walking hand in and until we got to Sairaorg's room. It looked mostly the same, except for the addition of Sairaorg and his queen Kuisha Abaddon, one girl that was calm, accepting, and understanding. She is the closest thing to a Yamato Nadeshiko I have ever seen among devils.

"Hey dude, sorry for barging in." I said, noticing that everyone else was already seated and enjoying themselves. Not surprisingly Sairaorg was talking with Okuyasu and getting along very well with him. "Our place was kinda invaded by some people and we rather leave than stay there."

Sairaorg turned to me and said with his usual confidence.

"No problems. Watching this together with you guys is better than just with me and Kuisha here alone in this big room. The more the merrier." He said with a smile, not noticing how Kuisha dropped her head and sighed a bit on the back. Considering that it was just the two of them n this large room I bet Kuisha sent everyone else from his peerage away so as to get some time alone for the two, there is even some roses and perfume in the air. She definitely does NOT want us here, but there aren't any other places we can go now and Sairaorg did say that he doesn't mind. But did he really not notice this obvious signals?

Is Sairaorg seriously this dense?

I mean, does he not realize how the girl right next to him feels? Thank God I am not that dense and always realize how the girls around me feel.

As I and Emily went to the couch Serenity almost materialize at my side and clung to my arm, Emily on the other side saw this and did just the same. They must really like me as a dear friend, and was the AC this cold for them to stay this close? (Writer's Note: pot calling kettle black)

"Hey man, did we lose much of the match?" I asked Sairaorg.

"Nah, no fighting happened yet. But it will soon enough. Rias sent Kiba and Issei to the gymnasium while Riser sent his two knights and a rook there so we can expect a lot of fighting there. Rias also sent Gasper to the woods while Riser sent six of his pawns and one of his bishops. And last Rias has sent Koneko to the pool area while Riser has sent one of his rooks and the last two pawns." Sairaorg said.

I got to give it to Rias, that is a solid strategy.

Issei and Kiba are not good for sneaking around at all so sending them to an area of interest where they can fight freely is good.

Koneko being in the pool area was also well thought out as it is an area where a long distance attack can be performed by the enemy sending someone that can evade it or tank the hit was a nice thinking.

Gasper is a damphir (half-vampire) so he being in the woods where he can send many shadow familiars so as to keep a look at them at all times was good thinking. Normally it would not be recommended but considering how strong the little guy got it would not be a problem.

Rias really has grown if she managed to think of all that and plan it in such a way.

Now, it is time to see how the game will unfold. And for that, I got the perfect thing.

Pudding!

* * *

In the previous room

"Was it fine like this, Azazel-sama?" a man that had just entered the room asked after hearing about what happened.

Azazel looked torn for a moment, but then laughed it out and waved his hand.

"It is fine. I never hoped for it to be any different." He then showed a down casted look. "I did something terrible and for my daughter to hate me is natural. Wouldn't you agree, Baraquiel?"

Baraquiel nodded, knowing exactly how his leader was feeling. Baraquiel was a large man, with black short hair, a well-made beer that showed of his masculinity and purple eyes. He was wearing a black cape and a body fitting armor.

On the past, Baraquiel was married to Shuri Himejima and was the father of Akeno, but due to him leaving them for one night because of a mission he was not present when members of the Himejima clan invaded his home for 'cleaning the dirt blood out of our sacred walls'.

When he got home all he saw was the dead body of his wife and no signs of his daughter. More than one year later, when he finally found her she turned herself into a devil and did not want to ever see him because he 'abandoned' her.

Ever since he has continued to berate himself because of it. 'Why was I not there', 'It is my fault' and 'I am to blame' keeps rolling on his head over and over again. He doesn't even know if he has the right to call himself her father anymore as he failed her just too much.

But, if there is one difference between the two fallen angels is the reason behind the disappointment. For Baraquiel is that he was always when assassins killed his beloved, while for Azazel was because he freaked out when he heard the sentence 'I am pregnant' and escaped, he literally disappeared and it was only three weeks later that he was found in the desert close to Vegas without a shred of clothing, strapped to a cactus while still so drunk that if he was a human his liver would have given out on him long ago. His only consistent memory was meeting a man named Mr. Chow, after that, it was only a blur to him.

Even if they regret it with all their hearts their actions now, there is no turning back the time. Now the two are just trying their best to deal with the situation at hand and try to make amends for their mistakes, not that it was going that well for either of them.

"*sigh* The two of us really are a duo of unqualified parents." Baraquiel said to his boss.

Azazel nodded at that. Vali, on the other hand, was just looking at all of this with mild amusement but was more interested in the other occupants of the room. The 'new' Lucifer and his peerage, a group that was on his list of future targets to fight.

"Well, let's forget about all of this and watch the game. You are the one that asked me to come to see the game because you were curious about it." Sirzechs said, acting as composed as ever (except when it was about his baby sister or his son, when it was about them he was NOT composed at all).

The others in the room composed themselves and then all sat down to watch the game.

A very interesting one.

* * *

 _Omake:_ _What is underneath_

Without anyone knowing anything there were two men in the room with a similar secret.

Both of them were wearing a specially designed shirt under their formal clothes.

One of said man had a shirt with electrical signs on it with the words 'Akeno is my baby girl'. The other had a crimson red one saying 'proudest oni-sama in the world'.

For unknown reasons for the two of them, when they looked at each other they could feel something special.

The feeling of having found someone similar. A strange comradery was thus formed, one more step towards peace talks has been given.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I sure liked writing it, and in case someone did not catch the reference the 'Mr. Chow' was the Chinese dude from 'The Hangover'. And I do intend on fixing Emily and Azazel's relationship with time, but it is a slow process as he did abandon her mother because of her. It is not simple to forgive this sort of stuff at all.**

 **The next few chapters will be about the rating game between Rias and Riser, it was not that easy to write it but I hope you guys enjoy it.**

 **And in case someone is curious I am now working on chapter 70, yep everything until that point is mostly ready just needing minor adjustments before releasing. Also, this next few chapters will be showing how Rias' peerage has grown during this training period and it was not a small growth at all.**

 **Next chapter will be coming out three or four days as I realized that if I launch two chapters close to one another there are some that just skip a chapter by accident or don't realize that I launched a chapter at all. I keep my timetable very firmly and if I say I will release a chapter on a set time you can bet I will.**

 **And one last thing, a reviewer asked if the kaleidosticks will be making an appearance and I honestly don't know yet, what I can say is that there will be a lot of demi-servants appearing in cameos or as enemies later on. Many will even be part of the hero faction since this faction will be many times stronger in my fic than in canon.**

 **Until next time, peace.**


	45. Chapter 40

3° person P.O.V.

On the game field, two teams were facing off. In one side there was Rias and her peerage, on the other there is Raiser and his peerage. Both sides were thinking just about the same at this moment, 'I have to make sure that Rias win'.

Yep, both sides wanted exactly and precisely the same.

With those thoughts running on the field the battles were about to start.

* * *

Gymnasium

Issei and Kiba entered the place they could clearly feel the other three presences in the place.

As they looked at them the three figures moved.

One of them was a woman with a female-knight armor, but less bulky especially when in the joints. An armor that grants excellent defense and freedom of movement. She had short brown hair and azure blue eyes. Her name is Karlamine.

The next one was also a woman, but this time she used clothes that looked like an adventurer from an RPG, clearly more focused on speed and techniques instead of brutal strength and power. She had long black hair and gray eyes. Her name is Siris.

The final one was a woman with short brown hair with many flocks or red. She used a cloth that looked just like a biker, including the many gashes and steel spikes for decoration. But, the most striking thing about her was that she was using a half-mask covering her face, giving a 'Phantom of the Opera' vibe to her. Her name is Isabela.

As both sides faced each other the first one to speak was Kiba.

"Hello, it is nice meeting you. My name is Kiba Yuto, a knight of Rias Gremory and your challenger for today." He kept smiling while saying that, confidence oozing out of him.

The one that went ahead to talk was Karlamine.

"Hello, Rias Gremory Knight. My name is Karlamine and these here with me are Siris and Isabela. We are pleased to meet you and hope that you won't feel too bothered by us when we defeat you." She said, no less confidence oozing out of her than Kiba.

As the two faced each other the first one to move was Kiba. He dashed forward with a slower speed than he had before the training, but not by that much. As he ran toward Kalarmine he took out an unadorned sword. It had a simple design and power, but that power is one of the most effective as it raises his dexterity and the edge was extremely sharp.

As the two clashed swords Kiba instantly dropped his gravity center so as to force his move to flow better, evading Kalarmine sword and going to the outside of the room while saying.

"Come and face me, knights of the Phoenix clan!" At the end of the shout, he was already up on the outside of the gymnasium. Seeing this both knights sweet dropped and thought in unison 'such a shameless knight'. How could he challenge them if he runs away on the first possible chance?

Not seeing much of a choice as the two considered honor extremely important, both knights went out to face Kiba, leaving Issei and Isabela to face each other. But not before bumping into Issei that was in the way.

Issei, for as amazing as it might be seen, was facing Isabela with a serious face. Not a trace of lecherous thoughts was showing on his face.

As they faced each other no word was exchanged. They both saw no meaning to it as they were too well trained to allow conversations during combat, especially Issei as whenever he tried to talk anything during the spars with Bon Clay-sensei he would be kicked extra hard.

Right on his jewels, the only ones he cared about.

So many Phoenix Tears were used because of it, and all the costs were put on his tab. Now Issei won't talk during combat, traumatic experiences are a powerful thing.

Issei attacked first by kicking Isabela on the side with a roundhouse kick, which she managed to stop by putting her left hand in front of the way. This is the moment when the advantage of a rook is showed as even if Issei's kicks can break stone easily it could not make more than sting Isabela.

Isabela followed up by giving a straight right punch, but Issei managed to evade by bending his back. Not only that but he put his hands on the ground so as to flip himself while trying to kick Isabela's chin with his now free foot.

BANG

The kick hit its mark, Isabela got a weak concussion and got confused due to her brain being shocked by the impact.

Seeing the wing of opportunity Issei took a forward step and gave one attack.

" **Little Boy**!"

The flaming punch hit Isabela right in the stomach, bending her at a weird angle before being shot two meters back.

As Isabela adjusted herself she looked at Issei with a glare while a small steam of blood came out of her mouth.

As she cleaned her face Issei smirked at her, a smile that gave her the chills even if she did not know why.

Then Issei put his hand in front of himself and snapped his fingers while saying two words.

" **Dress Break**!"

* * *

Outside of the gymnasium, Kiba was having a hard time facing off against the two knights of Raiser.

His movements were a bit stiff and due to that he had received some minor wounds across his body. Nothing much but the fact that he was pushed into a corner was the truth.

Even after training so much, he still was not quite there yet to face off against two other knights.

Or so it seems.

As he saw the swing of Siris Zweihander, he managed to parry it with a sword he made with the intention of releasing a thin surface of water that makes paring easier as the enemy sword simply slips. However, the strength that Siris put behind the swing was such that even with the fact that he parried the sword it still wasn't enough to eliminate all the power put into it.

As a result, Kiba was thrown back four meters, right in the place where Kalarmine was positioned.

When he was being pushed back by the force of the impact, Kiba spun just in time as to avoid being slashed on the back. Unfortunately, even as he managed to turn in the right direction he did not manage to defend properly against Kalarmine flaming sword as the sword he has made previously to enhance his dexterity was melted on impact.

But Kiba was not to be underestimated. Due to the training, his body was stronger now and with it a bigger amount of magic energy. A magic energy that he used to create extremely energetically unstable blades beneath his feet right when he was pushed back.

While he could not create those swords too big due to excessive drain on his limited reserves it was still plenty enough for what he wanted.

A diversion.

BOOOOMMMMMM

When those two blades exploded close to Kalarmine she instantly put her sword in front of herself and liberated flames out of it so as to work as a pseudo shield. As Kiba looked at that scene he hoped that it would at the very least inflict serious damage to her, but he underestimated how strong her armor was and thanks to that she only got some minor scratches.

He then decided that it was no longer time to hold back so he used all his leg strength to jump over to the roof.

"What, tired of running?" Siris asked, already pissed at the Gremory knight that ran away more often than not.

"No, it is just that I realized that I need to take this fight seriously." He said that and next, he deactivated a small demon sword he kept in himself that had the effect of making an illusion to hide the four cylindrical weights he carried on his members.

As he removed all four he looked like a weight was taken out of his back and he then said.

"Ready for round two?" Following that he let those cylindrical weights drop.

Normally weights are not that heavy as if they were too heavy it could wound the body in the long run, but Kiba was a devil and his instructor was an (in his own words) 'demon that even hell did not want any more'.

As the weights fell on the ground-

BBBOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM

An explosion on the point of impact, followed by a dirt cloud was released on the field.

" **Dress Breaker**!"

As he heard Issei's voice he wondered what happened and what was he talking about. But in the next moment, he heard a sound that he was accustomed to hearing in a VERY different setting.

""KKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!""

A vision that would be engrained in Kiba's mind to the day he died surged at that moment, the image of two swordswomen's caring their swords and butt naked.

And up until the day he died, he would deny the following thought ever passed through his head.

'Thanks for it, Issei!'

* * *

Inside the gymnasium, Issei was griming while looking at his work.

Isabela was on her knees, trying her absolute best to not show anyone her more intimal parts. Meanwhile, Issei was griming like a fool, and while blood dripped from his nose he said.

"Thank you, Castiel-sensei, for teaching me magic. If it was not for you I wouldn't have completed my undressing magic."

* * *

In a room, an interesting scene was happening. One young man was being held down as he tried to craw his way to the nearest point of teleportation for inside the game.

He had to correct a mistake, even if a par of jewels (ones that are in the middle of the legs of a young pervert) could and most likely would end up crushed because of it.

The situation seemed to have gotten better after some time, but when those words from Issei were heard even Sairaorg needed to put some serious effort into not letting Castiel walk out of that room.

In his mind, Castiel had one thought: 'when you get out I will make sure that you cannot walk straight for a full week out of how damaged your balls will become!'

* * *

Issei suddenly felt a chill running down his back. A feeling of impending doom was upon him.

At that moment there was a flash of light and suddenly Isabela left the place. Not just her but Siris also left, the only one remaining was Kalarmine that turned tail and ran away as fast as possible, covered in flames liberated by her sword.

" **One rook and one knight of Riser Phoenix left the battleground by their own choice. Also, five pawns and one bishop of Raiser Phoenix lost and one bishop from Rias Gremory lost**."

Hearing this Issei and Kiba got shocked thinking: 'What happened over there?'.

* * *

A few minutes ago

The woods were a place where normally there would be close to no movement or sound, this time around was different as a large group of people was entering the woods.

Six pawns and one bishop entered the woods together, looking for a chance to sneak around to the other team's base so as to get as many pawns promoted.

Raiser wanted to see if he could make a spectacular almost win before he conceded the victory in a perfect way.

As they entered the forest the one at the very front was a girl with blue hair and light brown eyes. Her hair is styled with four short ponytails, with two of the four pointed up and the remaining two pointed down. The front of her hair features split bangs going across her forehead, with side bangs framing her face. Her outfit consists of a white haori with a red obi, which is worn under a red happi coat. She wears bandages on her forearms and shins she also wears black guards over her hands. For footwear, she wears a pair of zōri.

The name of this girl is Mira, one of Raiser's Pawns and a user of Ki.

She also knew some basics of senjutsu and used those two abilities to specialize in scouting.

As she stopped in the front of the forest she put her right hand on a three and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she said.

"There is just one enemy in the forest to bar our path, but he is strong."

"Oh please, as if he could be strong enough to stop us all." Said Marion, one of the bishops of Raiser. She is a young girl with shoulder length light brown hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a buttoned, sleeveless, French maid uniform with a white lace design, along with a standard maid headpiece, cuffs, and a white half-apron to go with the set. She also wears light grey tights.

"Yeah, how strong can he even be?" another one of the pawns called Burent said. She is a young girl with shoulder length dark brown hair, dressed in a sleeveless French maid uniform that exposes her breasts cleavage and with a white lace design on the edges. She also uses as a maid headpiece, half-apron, and forearm length fingerless gloves.

"I agree." Was all that the fourth pawn said. She is a woman in her early twenties using a metallic bikini and some veils and clothes that in combination gives out the vibe of an exotic dancer. The name of this pawn is Shuria.

"Always one for few words, huh Shuria?" said the leader of this group, the bishop Mihae. She's a young girl who most notable characteristic is that she is always seen wearing a Kimono with a color pattern of purple, orange, and pink with her long black hair tied on opposite side. "Why are you two so quiet, Ile, Nel?" asked her in concern as she knew very well that these two are always quite hyperactive.

"We are tired from last night." Ile said.

"Yeah, yeah. We stayed up until now because we were playing mortal kombat with Raiser-sama." Nel said.

"Uhum, I and sis were competing to see who can give more fatalities against him." Ile said.

"I won." Nel said in the end with a toothy smile and a thumbs up.

Nel and Ile are the two youngest members of Raiser peerage, both being 15 but with the appearance of 13, or, as Raiser would say, 'Legal LOLI for the WIN!'.

The two have turquoise shoulder length hair, which they keep tied to one side of their head with a yellow ribbon (opposite to their sister), and blue eyes. Both of their outfits consist of gym uniforms, which consist of white t-shirts with blue accents, black leggings, blue sneakers above a knee-high sock and they also wear an orange wristband on their right wrist.

As all of them entered the forest Mira was the first one to realize that they were being watched. When she sensed that she jumped ahead and gave a palm strike on the place where she felt that they were being spotted, killing a shadow familiar.

As they saw this they realized that the one they would be facing would be Gasper, the scared bat from the Gremory peerage. They could not help but relax a bit as he was known or being afraid of everything.

A grave mistake.

* * *

On another point of the forest Gasper was sitting down on a chair made out of a shadow that he produced while looking through the eyes of the shadow familiars that he just made.

Since he went through that hell he stopped being afraid of his vampiric side and when he made that decision a new strength surged throughout him. It was not coming from his sacred gear of just his vampiric powers over blood and shadows, but something more primordial to him.

It came from his very soul.

He did not understand what it was, but it was clear to him that it was not evil or bad for him. If he was to describe it would be like he got a new soul together with his, a strange but welcome change and power. From it, he felt like a leader and a king, like he needed to be more and gave him the power to do so.

It was clear, however, that he was far from capable of fusing completely with it. It remained a different entity and he was not sure if he would ever completely dominate this power. But he would work towards it, he needed to since he had a mission in life that he would do anything to do. A mistake that he had to correct and a revenge for his dearest older-sister that he must execute even if it costs his eternal life.

But it was not what he should focus right now. Now what he needs to do is to destroy those enemies that DARED to challenge him.

He would make them pay for this insolence.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

He might need some therapy.

As the girls entered deeper into the forest they suddenly heard an unexpected sound.

Hooves. Horses hooves traveling in their direction.

As soon as they heard that Mihae used her specialty, enchanting. It was not a particular branch of magic, but it worked in a similar way to a blessing and while the boost is weaker they last longer and could be used in devils without problems.

As she used her magic the others were not idle as they took out different weapons so as to deal with the situation. Shuria took out a pair of scimitars, Marion took out a rapier, Burent took out a whip, Mira took out a wooden staff with the wood being strengthened many times over to the point it was harder than metal, Ile and Nel used chainsaws that liberated flames when on.

After getting ready they saw their opponent. While he was still wearing girls' clothing and even had a hint of make-up his aura of power and dominance was such that he could not be mistaken with a girl at that moment.

His hair was longer now and while it remained platinum blond it now reached the middle of his back and the tips were blue. He was also wearing a pair of silver earrings that he had just bought and a silver necklace. He himself didn't know why but he liked those items very much even if they sting him from tme to time, he was part vampire after all.

He approached Raiser peerage atop a horse that he created using shadows, giving him the feel of a demoing general approaching for combat.

When he was 25 meters away from Raiser peerage he stopped his horse and looked at them with a hint of displeasure in his eyes.

"I advise you all to turn around and leave this game as you guys have no chance of winning here." Gasper said.

Looking at him Raiser's peerage could not understand how someone wildly known for being weakly minded suddenly got this type of presence, but it was not important right now.

What they needed to do was just one thing, to strike him down before he had the chance of facing Raiser as who knows how the confrontation would turn out.

As they all thought that they jumped into action by launching all their attacks all at the same time.

"Fools, prepare for punishment. _Taste this blazing stakes of my compassion and wrath! Despair, for this sea of stakes has no end, as it is truly infinite! Your blood will be you're the only one to flow to this land!-"_

 ** _"KAZIKLI BEY!_** "

As soon as that incantation finished dozens of stakes made of shadow and blood came from every possible surface. There was virtually no way to get out unscratched and as such most of Raiser's peerage received extremely serious injury as they were impaled through the gut with one or more spears that came out of nowhere. Most had to be removed for emergency treatment or else there was a large chance of them dying if they did not receive immediate treatment.

There was but one survivor of this attack, Mira. As she trained in detection for a long time she was extremely attuned to the ambient and danger, and thanks to that managed to avoid that the stakes aimed at lethal points.

But she was still pierced on one of her legs and the abdomen, if she received the treatment she would be fine but if she remained like that for a few more minutes she would have to be removed due to blood loss.

At that instant Gasper magic reserves took a huge drop, that attack may be powerful but it still cost a lot of magic to execute.

As Gasper deactivated the stakes Mira dropped to the ground, looking close to dying.

"I commend you for surviving this attack, but I will have you leaving the game now." Gasper said, approaching Mira.

She stood up shakily and tried to launch a palm attack, but in the middle of her movements, she was frozen in time.

Gasper's eyes were shining as his sacred gear **Forbidden Valor View** was activated, stopping time for the one he looked at. Before he was incapable of controlling it due to his mental issues, but now he could control it very easily.

"Useless action, did you really think you could defeat me?"

However, at the following moment, things changed.

"GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Gasper suddenly dropped to the ground and started screaming in pure pain, a pain worse than anything he has ever experienced before.

The reason why is that Mira's palm contained some senjutsu and even if time stopped the life energy present in the attack itself did not stop. For most, it would not be that painful or debilitating, but in Gasper situation, it was not that simple.

Due to the state of his soul in the moment that the life energy reached Gasper, an instability surged between the two souls present there creating a conflict on his very soul. The result of such conflict was that Gasper started feeling unimaginable pain coursing through his body and mind to unbelievable degrees.

So much so that he was forcefully removed from the battlefield to receive emergency treatment. As a result, the only one that remained in the forest was Mira, the 'winner' of this battle, not that she could actually move or do anything right now except try her best not to pass out.

It really was a surprising sight for the spectators as in both battlefields there were multiple pieces being defeated, but the results could not be any more different.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Yes, I made Gasper a demi-servant. I never understood why I have never seen a story that does that, it is so obvious if you think about it.**

 **Anyway, about the reviews I got for the last chapter.**

 **First, to Adislt, I just thought that Taiga is very much a free spirit and likes to party but looks out for Shiro who she considers family, which is actually VERY similar to Azazel if you think about it. I mean, the two has the personality quite close to each other if you see it like this and it seemed like the person more likely for Azazel t be with and I needed a fallen angel as I am thinking of creating Fallen Saints (a fallen angel version of the Brave Saints).**

 **And to Random Guest I decided that I wanted to make the hero faction stronger as I want a stronger enemy. As I started to show in this chapter I intend to make canon characters stronger as well as the ones from the Tower, and if the enemy was still the same level in strength things would not be that interesting. I even have a list of some demi-servants that will be showing up that belong to that faction, one of which is Robin Hood. Yes, I will add him to the hero faction.**

 **Anyway, please review and know that I read any and all reviews and try to either answer directly or on my Writer's Note. Next chapter in 2 days as I want to accelerate to let you guys read all of the rating game faster.**

 **Until next time.**


	46. Chapter 41

3° person P.O.V.

As the announcement of the ones that had been eliminated was made the reaction of Akeno was fearful, imagining if Gasper would be fine or not. On the other hand, Rias continued to look at a map with some markers on it that were changing by the use of a magic that Yuno had taught her. Those markers represented allies and enemies, their locations and approximate state.

She normally would be many times more worried than Akeno, but since her training, she had learned to keep a cool head in times of battle or else… she'd rather not think about the 'or else'.

"Calm down, Akeno. It is going better than expected, I believe that you can go now since most of Raiser's pawns had been eliminated and from the three remaining one is wounded and the other two are facing off against Koneko. This is a chance! You are to be deployed to the forest to finish off the remaining Pawn there and following that you are to go for Koneko to help her, but in case that Raiser's queen appears you must intercept her with all your powers." Rias said that already planning when to leave this base.

All she was waiting for was for the rest of the pawns to be eliminated as remaining on this spot was like having a target above her head on plain sight. Allowing the enemy to have the certainty of your location was not a good idea, a fact she learned when, during a simulation, she had explosives blow up near her more than once because she allowed her enemy to know where she was.

The feeling of having your body being partially blown up and need to see and feel the life leaving your body was one that could really drive home the lesson there. The pain was a terrifyingly good instructor.

As Akeno heard her she nodded her head and followed the instructions given to her. But she was perplexed and could not help but think about what sort of experiences had Rias undergone for there to be so much of a change in demeanor.

After Akeno left Rias waited a few moments before-

PUNCH

Punching the table with so much strength that it cracked so much that it nearly broke in half. She was extremely angry about knowing that Gasper was defeated and could not help but want to know how he was and if he was wounded. But, as long as this match continued she could not go see him, and that eats away at her.

The feeling of true helplessness was not one that she had learned only during that training (she was an ojou-sama after all) but experiencing it, in reality, was even harder.

As she took a deep breath so as to control herself she sat down to wait for an update, she wanted to go out and help her precious servants NOW.

* * *

On the poolside, a fierce battle was happening.

Koneko was on all fours, her cat ears and tail fully exposed while she faced two enemy pawns. Their names are Ni and Li, two nekomatas just like Koneko.

Both of them wear short skimpy, white sailor uniforms that reveal their abdomen, shoulders, and lower breasts. They also wear short black skirts. The two had similar builds and almost identical appearances due to them being twins. The main difference between the two is the fact that Ni has red eyes and blue long braided hair, in contrast to Li's blue eyes and red shoulder-length hair.

As they faced each other it was clear that Koneko had a greater strength while Ni and Li had a nearly perfect teamwork and tactic understanding between the two.

Koneko decided to use her nekomata side instincts from the start of the fight since as soon as she saw the two she felt that she was in danger. And her instincts were correct since the two are the third and fourth strongest pawns of Raiser and they had trained for a long time in youjutsu being extremely proficient on it.

Proof being the pain that Koneko was feeling on her insides from the few punches that managed to strike her, if it was not for her new control (unwanted as it may be) of youjutsu she would have been defeated long ago.

But that is not to say that Ni and Li are unscratched, oh no sir since when you looked at them there were a few bruises and many scratches on their arms and legs.

As both sides eyed each other another person was getting bored as she did not participate in the fight. Her name is Xuelan, the final rook of Raiser. She is a well-endowed young woman of Chinese descent with shoulder-length black hair and blue-green eyes. Her hair has two Chinese-style buns on both sides of her head, while the front features bangs that form a slight V-shape across her forehead. Her outfit consists of a navy blue qipao with gold accents, a white sash around her stomach, and black, low-heeled shoes. The qipao is open at the chest area, giving view to Xuelan's breasts and cleavage.

She is Raiser's third strongest piece, just losing to his queen and the new bishop, and as such did not find this match all that interesting. She was contemplating leaving here to go look for a worthy foo when the need to do so no longer was there.

"Koneko-chan, we have come to help you!" Issei yelled from the distance as he approached with Kiba right by his side. Not only that but they could feel that someone else was approaching very quickly from the forest if the heat they could feel was anything to go by.

As Xuelan saw the two approaching she decided to ask Raiser for instructions about how much she should pull her punches. The answer was such.

"Against the little pervert that DARED to expose my girls in such embarrassing form to the whole world, beat him to death." Clear hate in his voice. Raiser may be seen as a chauvinistic ass for most, but he loved every single one of his peerage members from the bottom of his heart so knowing what Issei did push way too many of his buttons.

"Understood." Was what she said.

"But remember that you must find an opportunity to lose as we can't win this game." Raiser said after calming down somewhat, even if barely.

She understood her orders and so she decided to leave Ni and Li to face off against Koneko and went straight toward Issei, but Kiba positioned himself in front of Issei so as to protect him due to the orders he just received from Rias that said 'protect Issei to the best of your powers, we will need him to win this'.

As Kiba crossed two swords he just made, specially designed to be as sturdy as he could, he managed to stop the punch of Xuelan even if barely. At that moment.

"Let me help you Kiba! With my new magic, she will surrender instantl-"

"We have a message to make." The speaker for the event said. "It is from a young man with blond hair, slightly tan skin and with an extremely pissed of face, that may or may not be pointing his sword to my back right now to requested this announcement." The speaker most definitely was (not) close to tears when he said that.

As everyone heard this strange message they all stopped to listen, no one moving to attack as curiosity overwhelmed them.

"And the message is such: 'Use that damn thing again and you will lose the only head that seems to think for you! And I did NOT teach you magic for that!'." After saying that a sweet drop appeared on everyone's face, except on Issei that put his hands over his crotch and seemed terrified as he understood that his 'secret weapon' has just turned into a giant taboo for this game. Meanwhile, an almost pleading voice came out of the speaker. "Now can you please lower that sword? The bloodlust is almost killing me by itself."

Hearing that a new sweat drop appeared on everyone's face.

"…what are you waiting for? Continue the game." A (not) flustered voice from the speaker said quickly.

As soon as that sound happened Xuelan went ahead with no fear to face of Issei. She still remembered her master's orders, she would defeat this man here and now.

Seeing himself being ignored Kiba almost teleported from how fast he moved and appeared in front of Xuelan with an ice sword in hands due to his previous one not being in conditions anymore.

She gave a condescending look at the knight in front of her, clearly feeling no threat from him. She then went to strike him with a kick, but he avoided it by moving one step back before rushing in and giving four slashes at Xuelan.

She felt no more than a tingle from those slashes, her body was too powerful due to her rook piece and all the training she did over the years.

"Is this all you got?" Xuelan asked.

Kiba smirked at her and said.

"This is all I need." As he said that a shocking scene happened. From all those cuts ice started appearing at high speed and a few moments later Xuelan was turned into a popsicle.

Seeing that, Kiba turned to Issei and was going to ask him to finish Xuelan as his power, when using the boosted gear, was likely enough for it but at that moment-

"PPPPPPEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT!" A women shrill shocked all as Kalarmine appeared from the forest. She had managed to obtain a new cloth, a bulky and ugly armor that she didn't like using, but got no other choice. If there is one good thing about that armor, in her opinion, is how much it boosts her fire energy as it was made with the scales of a fire drake.

As she sprinted toward Issei with bloodshot eyes Kiba appeared in front of her so as to stop her in her tracks.

He tried to use the same trick again, but this time no matter how much he slashed at her no ice appeared. It happened due to the high temperature of the metal any and all ice attacks he made were being hindered useless. Seeing this Kiba discarded that sword and changed to one that was made to absorb heat and in that instant, Kalarmine retaliated with her sword liberating an immense amount of flames that almost engulfed Kiba.

He managed to get out of the way, but not before getting some nasty burn marks on his arms and legs. The feeling of his skin boiling over due to how hot the flames were.

At that moment Kalarmine was NOT pulling her punches. This was her actual strength and it terrified Kiba as he could feel that he was that highly outmatched in a direct contest. However, it did not matter as he remembered some of the words of Assassin-sensei:

'Even if you are the weaker party, one good attack can defeat anyone.'

It had sounded obvious at first, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that it was the truth. He just needed one good strike, just one to win this fight.

He would not allow this enemy to defeat Issei, especially not allow for her to reach Rias. And so he created one sword. One simple Japanese sword that was the most optimal to execute a movement that Assassin-sensei had taught him. Apparently, he was taught this one from Castiel's father so as to help Assassin in reaching even higher levels in swordplay, and to this day he was still working on how to use it to advance further than anyone has ever reached.

Kiba only had less than a week to study this move and, according to Assassin, while far from mastering it he was still quite accomplished due to infusing both his talent and the capacity of his sacred gear.

As Kalarmine approached him with another swing he took a deep breath and executed the move.

'One silent step… two steps infinity… three steps, a sword absolute!'

" **Lightless, Three Stage Thrust!** "

As he executed that movement he managed to pierce right through the armor of Kalarmine, giving her a nasty cut on her side and defeating her.

This move originally belonged to Okita Souji (the heroic spirit, not the one from DxD), the captain of the first unit of Shinsengumi and a master swordsman. The move is composed of three sword trusts that happen at the exact same instant, managing to be impossible to defend and when reaches the absolute best it can destroy even space itself.

While impressive, Kiba was still far from reaching this point. He is only capable of reaching a level where he replaces the original sword he made by copies that occupy the same space and when impacting the enemy makes piercing armor much easier. It is a sloppy and forceful way of reaching poorer results, yet it remains an impressive feat.

Assassin said that in just a few more years Kiba might reach the point where he can execute this move flawlessly due to how much talent with the sword he has.

However, this was not without his costs. Kiba may have a sturdier and healthier body than Okita had due to being a devil, but he still forced himself to execute a technique that his body was not ready for, adding that to the many cuts and burns that he got until that point and…

Kiba fell. He was completely and utterly spent, not a single muscle could move anymore. Normally just some rest would be enough but when he crossed paths with Kalarmine she also attacked and even if she did not manage to get a clean hit it still burned his back and arms even further.

" **Rias Gremory's one Knight has retired, Raiser Phoenix one knight has retired.** "

And so both Kiba and Kalarmine were removed from the field directly to intense treatment for blood loss and burns.

Seeing this all Issei did not know what to do. It might have taken a while to tell all of this, but in fact, it lasted no more than 10 seconds total. Being stunned is normal.

A normal mistake as, at that instant the ice covering Xuelan broke revealing her in all her glory without a single wound on herself.

She smiled as she took a deep breath of fresh air. She might have been fine in there but the feeling in there was too uncomfortable for her.

Seeing that Kalarmine was defeated did not bother Xuelan or the other pieces of Raiser. They needed to be 'defeated' anyway so it was fine for her, but the fact that she was locked in ice was not funny.

Not funny at all.

And she just found the ideal person to put all that stress she was feeling in, the guy that undressed some of her friends for all of the devil society to see.

She turned to Issei cracking her knuckles, more than ready to give him a beating when-

" **Raiser Phoenix three final pawns defeated**."

Ni and Li were 'defeated'. It was actually a decision from Raiser as he needed his pieces to leave the field and he did not want them to suffer any large wounds as he was already close to a breakdown from when he saw Kiba cutting Kalarmine and how Gasper wounded so many of his lovers. If it was not because he wanted to be defeated he would have taken to the field already and dealt with all of them, even if just to keep his loved ones safer.

On the next moment, Koneko launched herself in front of Issei so as to guard him. She also got the same orders than Kiba and knew what she had to do, but did not know if she could do it or not since she had many internal and external wounds on her body.

If it wasn't for the training in the senjutsu and learning how to tap into the life force she would have been downed long ago.

"Koneko-chan, let me help you!" Issei said, but Koneko shocks her head.

"No, buchou said that you needed to survive this fight no matter what." As she said that she readied herself to face Xuelan, but Issei realized that Koneko's energy reserves were dangerously low.

"Even if you don't want me to help you, I will not let you behind as I will protect you." As he said that he failed to notice the slight pink hue in Koneko's checks. "Hey, let me give you a hand. **Transfer** " As he said that his sacred gear took effect.

His sacred gear **Boosted Gear** had two primary powers. One is **Boost** in which he can double his power at every 10 seconds, but could only use said doubled power for a short while. The second one is the one he just used, its name is **Transfer** and it allowed him to transfer the accumulated power from on his gear to another for a temporary energy boost.

As Koneko felt that energy entering her she felt many times more powerful than before. She then felt this energy within her wanting more of this, instincts that she did not have before awakening little by little. The desire for power, for dominance, and for a… mate?

That last one she decided to look into later. Now that she was developing correctly she was approaching her first mating season and this draconic power was NOT helping her keep her cool.

Deciding to push down her feelings she involuntarily smiled at Issei as she said.

"Thanks, Nyaa~"

Issei's heart skipped a beat when she did that. She was just so cute on his perspective that it should have been illegal.

"*cough* *cough* How long do you two intend to continue flirting?" Xuelan said, noticing how Koneko and Issei had slight pink hues on their checks.

Deciding to go ahead the two went to face Xuelan together. Issei used his **little boy** so as to manage to face Xuelan fire punches, and even if Xuelan was faster than him she could not focus on him properly since Koneko kept attacking her on the back.

As she was getting pissed Xuelan punched Issei while ignoring Koneko's attack. She got a large scratch wound on her back, but Issei was much worse. He was launched many meters away with his left arm that faced that punch broken in three different places.

"Ggghhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My arm, it hurts, it hurts so much!" Issei said holding his arm that was bent in a strange direction.

Koneko was desperate, she knew that she could help Issei to recover his wounds and that he needed her to do that, but as long as Xuelan was there she would not dare to show her back to her and go threat Issei because of her fear of being attacked on her back.

'Please, Rias, Akeno, please get here fast. We need your help.'

And, in that despairing moment.

"What do you think you are doing with my cute servants?!" A red-headed savior came to the battlefield.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed. I do want to make this more related to the Fate franchise so I gave Kiba something he could use, his own training towards obtaining a Noble Phantasm. This one is from Okita Souji, a saber from fate/grand order.**

 **I know that it should be impossible for him to use this after just around a week training, but do remember that his body is naturally better than Okita who suffered from a chronic disease.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. Next will be in three days, I hope you guys will like it.**

 **Bye**


	47. Chapter 42

3° person P.O.V.

As Rias approached the battlefield she spotted Koneko's wounds and Issei hugging his arms while screaming in pain. She felt furious.

So much fury that her powers spiked to unprecedented levels and she was covered in her **Power of Destruction** (Writer's note: I will call it PoD since repeating the full name is a hassle) and she was more akin to a burning meteor than a devil flying.

As she reached a close enough distance she yelled.

"What do you think you are doing to my cute servants?!"

And soon after she landed on the field, with her back to Issei and Koneko as she faced Xuelan. She would not allow any more attacks on her servants.

Xuelan saw Rias and she got to say, she was not impressed.

While it may be true that Rias was stronger than Xuelan herself it was still far from matching Raiser, heck she doubted that Rias could face Yubelluna and win the fight. The other bishop is even more out of question, for more unreliable she might be.

As she saw Rias she decided to give it a go, but without really trying to wound her seriously as she knew how much of a siscon and hurting her was a taboo for the whole underworld.

'This game really is nothing more than a game, huh' Was what Xuelan was thinking.

As she readied an Chinese kung-fu stance she waited to see how Rias would attack. She readied her palms with enough Ki as to protect herself from even the famous PoD. The moment Rias attacked she would defend and then go ahead for at least one god strike, but she would let her clothes be damaged so as to have an excuse to leave the game.

She was ready for everything.

Or so she thought.

THUNDERCLAP

A lightning bolt hit her from above with extreme speeds, she could not even think about evading it due to as soon as she noticed it, it was too late.

" **Raiser's one rook retired.** "

As Xuelan left the field Akeno came out of a cloud up high. She smiled with sadistic glee as she said.

"NEVER turn your back to an enemy."

After seeing that and pouting for a bit (her queen stole her limelight after all) Rias turned to Koneko and asked what happened exactly.

"I defeated two of Raiser's pawns but am spent, Issei got his arm broken and Kiba was defeated." Was what Koneko said with a serious and stoic face.

Rias heard that and made a prompt decision.

"Akeno, I want you to go and see if you can find the other two pieces of Raiser. We may have more people on our side now, but Issei and Koneko are not in any condition to fight right now. I will remain here and protect them, you are the only one that can go to fight." As Rias said that she positioned herself so as to protect Issei and Koneko as she did not know when things would turn out bad.

Akeno nodded her head and took one final glance at her two kouhais, seeing them this wounded made her just as furious as Rias and she would make sure to mark that on her enemies' flesh.

As Akeno flew through the sky she felt someone watching her. As she turned around to look for the one doing that she saw in the distance a purple haired feme fatale looking at her.

Seeing her Akeno did not rush in, she knew better than rush towards an enemy that she did not know.

The woman is a busty beauty with long, wavy purple hair that falls all the way down her back and matching eyes. At the front, the right side of her hair falls over her breast and covers her right eye, while the left side falls near the top of her skirt.

Her attire is a dress consisting of a navy blue tunic top with gold accents and a pale blue skirt with open sides, and black shoes over matching thigh-high stockings with garter belts. The top reveals much of her cleavage and is held with a gold choker with blue and red jewels. Over this, she wears a white overcoat with black and gold accents and matching pauldrons.

"You must be Rias-sama queen, correct?" The woman said.

"Yes. You may call me the thunder Miko or Akeno-sama." Akeno said, exuding a confidence that did not lose out compared to her enemy.

"I understand, so as fellow queens let's start this little party and see who is the strongest. You the thunder Miko Akeno, or me the bomber queen Yubelluna." Said Yubelluna.

As soon as Yubelluna said that she waved her weapon of chose, a staff-like scepter with a large red stone in the tip, and a chain of explosions happened.

Akeno managed to defend herself by creating a magic barrier, but it was broken after the fifteenth explosion making Akeno take the full brunt of the last 10.

It is worth notice that while powerful this attack was far from capable of defeating a queen as any queen got the traits of a rook and even if untrained in CQC they still largely suppress others when it comes to bodily resilience.

Even so, the explosions were not a pleasant feeling for her, even though she was a bit of a masochist. Her clothes were damaged and her hair was burned on the tips. It was not a good sight.

Seeing this before her training would have made her much more uncomfortable, but after being struck by lightings for five days' straights she was more than used to this sort of feeling. Another advantage of this training is that now she was much more capable of 'taking a beating' than before, being capable of using a lot more of the rook aspect of her queen piece.

As the explosions ended Akeno flew up high, much higher than before as she took out a mystic code. It was a request she made for Kaguya and Yuzuru, in exchange she promised to inform the two if any 'whore' tried to get close to Castiel and if so, to make sure that they don't try again.

Akeno still remembered the words that Emily said a few weeks ago when she advised her to not try anything with him, she understood very clearly why she said that.

The mystic code she took out was no more than a handle in appearance. It did not seem overly mighty or anything, but the power it could produce was nothing to scoff at. As she moved the handle in a wide arc a thunder whip was released, stretching for more than 50 meters and reaching Yubelluna instantly.

"Crap!" was what Yubelluna said as she kept trying to evade the thunder whip, but every time she managed to escape its course it would divide itself into two or more and at least one would manage to hit her.

"Call me your majesty!" Akeno said, taking WAY too much pleasure out of this whipping. "Yes, more, MORE! Scream for me!" WAY TOO MUCH.

Getting herself back together, and being pissed that she was being whipped for the entire world to see (that is something only Raiser do, and that is just between the two), she liberated an explosion with herself as the center.

Normally, any such explosion would hurt the user but she was more than used to it and developed her own little magic tricks to deal with the situation.

As the explosion took place the tip of the whip was destroyed, following that Akeno suffered a new wave of attacks as multiple explosive spells detonated around her. Even when she managed to tank it and create many small magic shields it still was far from enough.

She then concentrated on what she had learned, of how to feel the thunder element and what it was truly capable of. As she did that she started moving her energy in an involuntary way, faster and faster to the point that her energy started circulating around herself and the ambient in high speed.

As the acceleration continued she started resonating with the thunder element in the atmosphere, so much so that dark clouds started surrounding herself and Yubelluna.

As Yubelluna saw those dark clouds she realized what was about to happen and welcomed it. She needed a reason for losing and a big flashy attack was as good as any, but she would make sure to do her part on the show.

"This is a new move that I created not long ago. It still is under work and I admit that it was a rip-off of something I saw once if you want to blame anyone you can blame my king for it." Akeno said while surrounded by thunders that even passed right through her body not differentiating it from the outside world.

She then opened her palm and it covered itself with thunder, a deep and very concentrated thunder at that. The lightning around her started taking the form of a giant dragon, one that would be capable of defeating almost all low ultimate-class enemies (if it wasn't so hard to make and obvious for those that reached such level).

" **Kirin** "

The beast roared its draconic head, dashing right through Akeno and toward Yubelluna.

Seeing this as a perfect chance to leave Yubelluna did not even tried to defend herself, she simply liberated one last explosive spell before being 'defeated'.

" **Raiser Phoenix Queen retired.** "

After flying away until around 500 meters away from Akeno the thunder monster she has made was dispersed. Now the only thing she had to do is regroup with the others and wait until they were all recovered before they went to that chauvinistic jerk.

But, one thing remained on her mind.

What was that last movement Yubelluna did instead of taking her down? Akeno understood that if she was disrupted when accumulating energy her attack could backfire so why did her enemy do no such thing?

BOOMM

A tiny explosion happened not far from her, it looked like it might have been the final 'struggle' from Yubelluna. Did she miss the mark?

The answer is-

NO

'What is happening? Where did this spike of energy is coming from?' was the last thing Akeno got to think before it happened.

" **EXPLOSION!** "

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

* * *

On the poolside Issei was receiving treatment for his broken arm. It was a slow one as Koneko could only channel life energy into him so as to stimulate his body natural recovery, but as she refused to learn more about senjutsu she was not very capable on even the good aspects of it.

She was feeling extremely useless, she not only failed to stop Xuelan's attack that broke Issei's arm she could not even help him recover properly. All because of her own fear of using her own powers.

'Why am I so useless?!' was what was passing on her head, as well as Rias.

She had come here only after her precious Issei was wounded, how could she not feel bad when she saw Issei so wounded and Koneko fearing no better and in such a distress.

And all for her wish. For her selfish wish of choosing who she wanted to be with, not caring about the alliance that her family had with the Phoenix clan (one of the most influential and the richest clan of devils). Not that she would ever accept marring Raiser, but she had other ways.

Ways that she did not want to use as it would 'taint' her reputation. But, when she saw how her peerage was right now she could not help but think that her reputation was not worth it.

"Do you think Akeno-sempai is fine?" Koneko asked after exhausting herself. Issei's arm was not bent at a weird angle anymore and he could breathe normally so at least it was not an urgent situation anymore.

"She will be. I know that she got really strong after the training, she will not lose to Raiser's queen!" Rias said and not long after the clouds got really dark.

As the clouds got darker and darker she realized that Akeno was using that move. It was something she had told her about, and even if powerful it was undeniable that it took a huge toll on her body and it would leave her extremely weak after.

Not long after a giant dragon made out of thunder appeared on the field and a message happened.

" **Raiser Phoenix queen, retired.** "

As she heard that Rias released a sigh that she didn't even notice she was holding. That was an 'all in' attack that if failing could spell the doom for Akeno.

Knowing that her queen survived and won put a smile on Ria's face. Even more so when Issei stood up, wobbly but still stood up and smiled at her.

She thought that finally, things were working in her favor. She just needed a little more, just a little push and she would be free from that marriage contract.

Then, the unexpected happened. A surge of energy in amounts that she has only seen on some high ultimate-class devils being capable of using.

Before she could react she heard a bellow.

" **EXPLOSION!** "

* * *

On Riser's base, he was watching the whole game with a tired face. It was more than just annoying to let himself be beaten by Rias, especially since he knew that his peerage was much more capable. That was especially so when he saw Yubelluna, the woman he actually wanted to marry, be defeated like that.

He knew for a fact that she was taking it easy, not using most of her abilities at all. Heck, knowing her she could have made the air around Akeno turn into propane so that when Akeno released her first thunder she would explode herself (he still remembered she doing that to him a few times during spars, not a funny experience).

But now he could finally go out and fight. He could go and end this charade, but not before his final piece makes her move.

"You can go and attack now my little crimson eyed cutie."

"I-I-I am not a cutie! My name is Megumin, you can call me womanly, gorgeous, or the greates wizard ever and master of explosions, not c-c-c-c-cutie." The girl said, making Raiser release a little laugh. She has always been like this since the day they meet. It was funny then, and it is still funny now.

"Okay, okay. I get it. My precious feme fatale, would you please do your thing." He said to her.

She shivered a bit in excitement, and then she did a pose with her hand in front of her face, bending her back backward a bit and staring at the window for the signal so as to know the exact coordinates of where to attack.

BOOM

As she saw the explosion that marked the exact location for her attack she started her chanting.

"Oh, blackness shrouded in light,  
Frenzied blaze clad in the night,  
In the name of the crimson demons,  
let the collapse of thine origin manifest.  
Summon before me the root of thy power hidden within the lands  
of the kingdom of demise!"

Hearing this chant Raiser did his best not to laugh. He knew clearly enough that the chant was mostly optional and that she made the words herself, but hearing this he really realized one thing.

The crimson-eyed tribe really are just a bunch of overpowered chuunibyous that did not understand the meaning of embarrassment.

" **EXPLOSION!** "

And another thing that he understood when he saw his bishop, Megumin really was a strong one.

"That was a great exxpppllllooooo-"

If only she did not pass out after a single attack.

"*sigh* You can retire now. Go to the infirmary and ask for an extra-large serving of everything you want, it is my treat." Raiser said.

The answer was exactly what he expected.

"Milk!"

And so she went away.

She really was an oddball, but when he looked at the crater outside and the cloud of smoke he could not help but realize that she really was terrifying.

" **Riser Phoenix one bishop, Rias Gremory one rook and queen, all retired.** "

* * *

Rias regretted it.

She saw when that explosion happened. It was gigantic, occupying a space of over 500 meters and eliminating everything inside. Her good luck was that her group and Akeno were on the periphery so they did not suffer most of the damage, but it was too much.

When the blast occurred it reached Akeno that was inside its blast area, causing multiple burns and a few broken bones, the accumulated damage was added to her state of being weakened enough that she could barely fly was simply too much for her. She was defeated instantly.

On the other hand, the explosion reached them a bit later the blast a bit weaker already. She tried to create a magic barrier, but all it did was block part of the blast before it broke. Rias was about to move ahead to the blast so as to protect Issei and Koneko, but her dear rook jumped in front of her and Issei. She opened her arms and received all the damage that SHE should have taken.

Koneko was defeated then and there.

As she saw Koneko sorry state she felt tears slip out of her eyes, impossible to control. Especially when Koneko turned to her, revealing how even her face was covered in burns and scars. The smile that Koneko showed might as well have been an accusation to her.

'Why weren't you ready?'

'Why did you force her to fight to this point?'

'Why? Just why'

'Why did I not train better before?'

'Is this really worth it?'

'Why am I so weak?!'

It was those words that floated on her head when she saw Koneko in that state.

And if she was like this, Issei was worse.

He was a MAN! He should have protected her! He should have been stronger! HE FUCKING PROMISED HER! He should NOT have to see his cute kouhai so hurt while he was fine.

PUNCH

PUNCH

PUNCH

He started punching the ground in frustration when she was removed from the game. And then the announcement.

" **Riser Phoenix one bishop, Rias Gremory one rook and queen, all retired.** "

Hearing those merciless words made everything even more real for the two. Rias knew that the only one they needed to face of now is Raiser and that he could appear at any moment. But she also knew that he was likely on top of the school building, sitting on a throne.

And the fun part is that after the announcement happened he did go to the top of the school and sit on a throne. As a devil he always had a like for the dramatic, so waiting for Rias to the final battle needed the necessary style. The real reason, however, was to give them the time to recover.

Under normal circumstances, he not moving to fight Rias immediately could be seen as a weakness for the old devils watching, but if he was to be sitting on a throne those old bastards would think of him as a typical devil showing off and not think much of it.

He really was giving all possible opportunities for Rias. He gave her time and made all his peerage to take it easy on hers, even if with that damphir kid it was unnecessary. As he waited he hoped and prayed for Satan that Rias could come here quickly so that he could lose already and go home. He wanted to go see his lovers and make sure they are fine.

On Rias side, she stood up and rubbed her checks so as to remove the tears there. She needed to go to Raiser and finish this.

PUNCH

PUNCH

Issei was still punching the ground, his knuckles were bleeding but he could not stop. He probably did not even register this while in this state. He just kept punching.

Rias put a hand on his shoulder and said.

"Come on, we have to go now." It was like a shock circulated through Issei as he remembered why he was here. He was here to help Rias be free of that marriage contract, he was here to help his king and friend.

As he stood up a chilling gaze appeared in his eyes.

He would defeat Raiser himself and make him wish he did not have started this fight.

Rias saw the seriousness of Issei's face and choose not to comment on it. It was better than she let him deal with whatever he was feeling. Instead, she asked.

"How many boosts do you have accumulated in you?"

"I have six. My uppermost limit right now is 15 and that is the absolute max I can go." Issei said. Rias nodded at that, formulating a simple plan that she could only hope would work.

"We will wait here for one minute and then go to Raiser's place. If he comes earlier we will deal with him then, but if he decides to wait we will be ready for him." She then decided to give one extra order. "Try to calm down a bit and focus on recovering s much energy as possible, I will need you to leave the field as soon as you transfer me the boosts but you might need the extra energy so as to survive until the transfer moment."

Issei nodded, pretending to agree with Rias. He had other plans, plans involving his gear and a few seconds.

* * *

A minute later Issei and Rias approached the school building, both with serious faces and accumulating their energy to the best they possibly can. As they were a few meters from entering they heard a detached and bored voice from the top of the school.

"Finally! I was getting tired of waiting. Don't bother to walk and just fly here, don't make me keep waiting, my beautiful bride." That final word gritted Issei and Rias ears worse than any offense, meanwhile Raiser felt a desire to wash his mouth with bleach.

Hearing Raiser words Issei liberated his four wings while Rias liberated her six and together they flew to face their enemy. As soon as they got there they saw Raiser sitting on a golden throne drinking wine with a classic song playing in the back (all just to showcase a sophisticated image to the public, if it depended just on him it would be a reclining chair drinking beer while listening to some 70's rock).

"We have come to finish this, Raiser!" Rias said, liberating her mid high-class level of power. The energy was radiating from her almost like the Ki from dragon ball, but the color is red in this case. "Get out of that chair and face us." As she said that she launched a blast of concentrated PoD in Raiser's direction.

Seeing this attack that would wound most opponents Raiser honestly did not care. The only question to him was if he should show his recovery speed by taking the hit or burn it to show his power.

Option two it is. It is more dramatic and showed his powers better.

He waved his hand and following that the PoD attack Rias launched was engulfed in Phoenix flames so intense that even energy attack was consumed by it.

That did not faze Rias as she knew it would be an uphill battle from the start, but before she could continue to attack Issei got in front of her, glaring at Raiser as if he was his mortal enemy.

"You are going down." Was what Issei said before raising his sacred gear and activating its power. A power that he unlocked not long ago but still is far from capable of using it for long stretches of time.

" **Balance Breaker: Scale Mail!** "

Issei was covered in a red armor that completely covered his body. There was a small tail in the back and a big red gem in the chest area as well as on his hands, the helmet looked like a futuristic one with many sharp angles in it. The eyes were crimson visors made of reinforced glass and they were flashing red due to the energy circulating on Issei's body.

10

"I will finish this in 10 seconds." Issei shouted while liberating two rocket boosters from his back, accelerating towards Riser with his hand covered in flames.

9

As he got to Raiser he punched with all his strength.

" **Little Boy!** "

Raiser took the hit on the face but was not fazed at all. He just stayed still as his face was punched, not that he even felt anything as he simply stayed in place as his face regenerated to what it was instantly.

8

Issei started using many more attacks on him.

7

He punched;

6

Kicked;

5

Launched flames from his mouth;

4

But,

3

He never really got to deal any lasting damage to Raiser;

2

Such was the power difference that came from years of training, not a few weeks.

1

All that Issei did was damage Raiser's throne,

0

before he dropped to the ground.

Issei could not move a single muscle anymore. The balance breaker allowed him to use his boosts on himself for a longer period, all the energy that he accumulated could be used for a longer time.

But even so, Raiser was stronger.

"Not bad, I could actually feel those last few ones. Keep practicing and you just might manage to be a worthy enemy someday." Raiser said that before standing up, his appearance not changed in any way but Rias could feel that his energy dropped a bit.

As he approached the fallen Issei that could not stand up anymore Rias made a prompt decision and send him out of the game.

" **Rias Gremory one pawn, retired.** "

Now it was just her and Raiser. She started releasing blast after blast of concentrated energy at him, and the most infuriating part is that all of them hit the target.

But even when it hits the damage made was quickly healed back, not even a burn mark left on Raiser's skin.

"Why do you fight so much, dearest Rias?" Raiser asked, still walking like there was no difference between her attacking or not.

"Because I don't want to marry you! I want to decide who I marry myself, for myself and not because others decided it for me." Rias said, while her attack started raising in frequency to the point that she was liberating lasers of PoD at Raiser.

It did not bother Raiser that much, he was used to pain. Heck, he went through survival training with Berserker for an entire week (the reason might or might not have been because he spied on Illya taking bath). After that experience, he developed an almost complete immunity to pain (and an absolute terror of Berserker).

"But it was the decision of our parents. It is for the betterment of our race and two houses so why do you keep going against it?" Raiser said, this time stepping hard on the ground and releasing a wave of flames to his surrounding, missing Rias but creating an inferno of flames in every direction.

Seeing those flames Rias knew that she would probably lose… no, she got the confirmation of that. She was not his match and no matter how much she struggles she would certainly lose in the end.

She was about to simply give up, no point in continuing when you were in such a clear disadvantage when she remembered her little fight against Castiel. How she had given up and what he said to her. About how she lacked backbone and how she was not ready for the world.

She would prove him wrong.

He said she would lose and give up, so that is exactly what she would not do. She would show that she was ready for the world out there and that she was no longer simply the little sister of Syrzechs Lucifer, but that she is Rias Gremory. A proud devil heiress that would not simply give up.

"I stand up here because I decided so. I. DO. NOT. WANT. OR. WILL. MARRY YOU! NO MATTER WHAT YOU OR ANYONE ELSE HAS TO SAY I WILL REFUSE THIS MARRIAGE WITH YOU, RAISER PHOENIX! I WILL FOLLOW MY HEART TO THE END"" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the energy around her radiating with righteous fury as she would not bow to this travesty of a marriage.

She would NEVER marry him.

And at that moment, when she believed that he would finally strike her, the next few words that came out his mouth shocked her and everyone else that heard them.

"I give up."

" **Raiser Phoenix gave up the game, WINNER is Rias Gremory!** "

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **And that wrap things up. I will leave this here since this seems like the best point to finish this little fight. Also, I already am writing the chapter 74, and it is going well enough. In the next chapter, I will be returning the focus to Castiel, and he will have a talk with Issei in the next chapter or the next one (I don't remember exactly which one).**

 **BTW, I will be facing some technical difficulties on my writing process because the screen of my notebook broke so I am not sure when I will release the next chapter, but it will be in less than a week I can asure you guys.**


	48. Chapter 43

3° person P.O.V.

When Raiser admitted defeat shock was the only thing on everyone's mind. Many even started to doubt their ears, as it didn't make sense. Why would Raiser just give up when the situation was so overwhelmingly in his favor?

As Rias looked at Raiser he gave a self-mocking smile and said.

"I wanted to marry you as it was my duty as a devil, but forcing a bride that goes to the point of saying to the entire world that she will refuse this marriage is not something I desire." He then gave a hollow laugh and continued. "I hoped that you would see reason, that you would understand why this was a good thing for our two clans. It is a shame that you could not do it. Obstinate to the very end, you really are a fiery woman that does what you want."

Rias looked at him, the feeling of elation was surging inside her. She was free! Finally, she was free from it all!

She could do what she wanted, and be with whoever she wanted.

"But, I demand an explanation for all of this!" Raiser said, clear anger in his voice. "You denied the contract between our two houses, ignored years of friendship and decided all of it yourself. What do you think you were doing? What reason did you have to deny this marriage with such intensity? Am I that terrible of a person?"

The answer left her lips without a second thought. It was a natural response, one that spoke volumes about how she felt and what she thinks.

"It is not that you are terrible, but that no matter what I will decide what is good for me myself. If I decided that I won't marry you I simply won't marry you."

Raiser shock his head, clear disappointment in his eyes.

"So be it. I hope that house Gremory can remain one of the pillars of our society in the future, even with you in charge." As he said that he was teleported away together with Rias.

She was happy, simply happy that her peace and freedom was her own again. She would decide what she wanted, and she would obtain it no matter what. This situation where she managed to defeat Raiser, a devil famous for being a rising star of the new generation was the prof she needed.

She would be the next leader of the Gremory house, and she would take them to new heights. Now all that she needed to do was get her peerage and return to Kuoh, where her destiny awaited.

But

She failed to see the undercurrents of the situation.

What she had done was not so simple as she imagined. She had defiled the alliance of the two clans and provoked many old devils as those final words of her 'I will decide what is good for me myself!' would remain on the minds of many devils. Old devils that saw those words with other eyes.

Eyes of anger and repulse as those words carried a different meaning on their ears. For them, those words meant not the freedom to choose, but the freedom to defile the devil council, to defile the old laws, to challenge their social structure.

To defile the orders of the elders.

And THAT, that was not something they would allow to go unpunished.

* * *

On one of the cabins watching the match, the emotions of one of the integrants were complex to say the absolute least. Syrzechs Lucifer was experiencing many different emotions right now.

At the same time that he was happy that his sister was free to choose her destiny, he was sad that she was growing up and decided to follow her own decisions. But above all, he was worried.

Worried about those last few words of Rias, and how they would be seen by the devil elders in the government. They are the actual force that makes the decisions for the entire race and is controlled by the elders and leaders of the main houses and clans. Those elders and clan leaders are old bats that love power and control above all else and those words would make them uncomfortable. And an uncomfortable elder is not a good elder.

Even if she did not mean it to sound like that, they would still see those words as a direct provocation and fear that she might start a trend that would make the other heirs and young devils decide that they can do whatever they want.

Syrzechs was terrified of what might happen now. He was thinking that bringing Rias back to the underworld, even if it might make some damage to the devil race, was acceptable if it meant her security. But now all he wanted was for her to go to the human world as soon as possible as he didn't know what those old bastards might do in the dark. And the worse part is that even in the human word he still believes that she could potentially be a victim of those elders.

And what infuriated him was the fact that he would HAVE to accept the terms that the Tower requested, as he would not dare to send any help or additional bodyguards to his sister as who knows if they are on anyone else paycheck.

He was also feeling powerless as even if he was known as THE Lucifer he had no real power in the government, he could not act thoughtlessly as any big actions of his might have undesirable consequences to his whole race and he was more of a figurehead and muscles to those old bastards than anything else. If he moves carelessly even a new civil war is not completely impossible, especially since there were still some clans that survived the last one and desired nothing more than to overthrow the new government.

Meanwhile, Azazel was looking at all of this with an empty look, the only thing on his mind was his daughter and what he should do. He was a genius, known as one of the most brilliant minds in the world, but he simply could not get to an answer. Even when the answer was scarily simple he just could not see it due to how obvious it is.

To say that you are sorry and apologize sometimes is the hardest path of all.

Baraquiel was holding himself back quite a lot as he wanted nothing more than to run toward his daughter so as to make sure that she was fine. He was immensely proud of her, the power that she had shown was incredible in so many ways, but he knew that he could not leave this room like this. He was but a guest and any actions of his may start a conflict with those older devils that fought for years against his race, maybe even fought against himself.

And so Baraquiel continued there, waiting for news about his daughter while hoping and praying to his father to make sure that she was fine. It almost sounded like a bad joke as a fallen angel praying to a dead god to look after a devil. But Baraquiel did not even entertain such thought as he was on his 'overprotective father mode'.

Vali was watching it all with an uninterested look. He came here with high hopes for his destined rival but what he saw disappointed him greatly. He might as well not bother with Issei and focus on more promising people, like Raiser or the guys from Judgment. They seemed much more interesting and ready to fight now, and the thought of how many fights he would get if he killed their precious heir was one that made his blood boil in excitement.

Yeah, that might be a good endeavor for the future. An idea to think over, as imagining what he would get by killing that smug little bastard was one that warmed his heart.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Well… that went better than expected. I can now finally release a sigh of relief in knowing that half of what Rin demanded of me was completed. Now I just need to go see about making an alliance with the Sitri house and I will not need to go back to the Tower to receive special training.

Also, Rias really should think better before she opens her mouth. Did she really not think about what she just said? Oh well, at least this helps to force Syrzechs hand a bit more. Isn't it great when things happen in a way that exceeded the original plan?

Now I just need to sell a favor to our most recent allies, especially since I doubt house Gremory will be getting more Phoenix Tears any time soon. And bye-bye 'friends and family discounts' for them as well. At least this means that they will be forced to buy healing items from us as our alchemy department did produce some interesting items with this objective, even if they are of considerably lower quality than the Phoenix Tears (maybe I should see if I can get better recipes for pills and medicines with Zelretch in the future, food for thought).

It is more money for us anyway so I won't regret it.

Also, we will even give a small cut for the Phoenix clan on the side so as to keep their prices up to the Gremory house. The Phoenix clan won't mind since Rias did dishonor their contract and they would like to still receive some money out of it. On the side, I also proposed to be an intermediary for selling of Phoenix Tears to other Pantheons and groups that devils normally cannot do business with that easily due to politics, and considering our recent history with the Phoenix Clan and our friendship and deep alliance they would be more than happy to do business with us over the Gremory's.

Everybody wins, even Rias because without my convincing Raiser to go along with this plan she would NEVER manage to defeat him and receive their freedom.

...Well, everybody except house Gremory itself. But a little punishment for the inconvenience they caused us back then is nothing that absurd anyway, and I never really agreed to this alliance anyway, I am doing it just because Rin ordered so because if it was just for me I would not agree (that bastard Beowulf trying to steal one of my father's last gifts for me while saying that I did not deserve it and it should be his anyway pushed one too many buttons with me).

Looking at this in a certain way would make it seem that I am manipulating our allies as pawns, and it would not be that wrong of a way to see it. The difference is that I know that it is not just me that is treating others like this but they also treat me the exact same way, everyone looks out for themselves first on this sort of scenario and those who don't understand that are to blame for their own problems. Everyone are pawns in the games of others, no matter the position or the power you have because in politics we are all pawns in the end.

I then turned to Sairaorg and said.

"Dude, I gotta say that Rias did very well in there, considering her lack of manpower and all that. But seeing as she won because of her enemy giving victory to her I must say that you should talk to her to continue training. I don't know about you but I feel that she might go back to being lazy if no one makes her move forward." I said, which is absolutely true.

I honestly doubt that she will desire to continue training seriously after this match as all her motivation was in winning this. If she is to get stronger she must be stimulated to continue her growth, and if she can keep growing she really might become a truly strong devil.

All she needs is the right motivation, and no one is more motivated than Sairaorg when it comes to training.

He looked at me and nodded after a while, understanding what I meant. He might seem like a simple-minded man but Sairaorg Bael is someone that is in the top of all young devils for a reason. All I can say is that I feel happy that he is my friend as I would hate to have as an enemy, he is powerful and great on all fronts you analyze him.

"Yeah, I get that. But hey, let's go see her and her peerage. I did hear that Okuyasu here is very capable of healing and they seem to have a need for it." He said.

"Of course. I was going to ask you to take me and Okuyasu there anyway as the Tower is now officially allied with the Gremory clan." I then turned to Okuyasu and asked. "I know I said all that but do you mind coming with us to see them? I will not force you if you don't want to do it, you are free to choose if you want to come with us or not."

Okuyasu looked at me and scoffed.

"Please, like you need to say all that to convince me to heal others. I was itching to go anyway." Okuyasu said with a cocky smile on his face.

I could not resist but to release a light laugh at this. This is so much like him that I can't help but laugh a bit at it. Not the mocking laugh, on no sir, but a happy and carefree one.

As I stood up I started walking to the door with Okuyasu and Sairaorg when someone approached my back. I turned to see and not surprisingly Serenity was right there. She has been glued to me as much as possible since we got out of the death arena. I even had to check up my surroundings to make sure that she would not follow me in the bathroom… I can swear that I saw a shadow moving last time I took a bath.

Seeing no point in avoiding this as I knew perfectly well that it was a lost cause I decided to go with Sairaorg there. But, before I could go much further I felt a weight on my side. As I turned to look I saw Kuroko hugging my arm, trying very hard to place my arm between her breasts, but considering how she was as flat as a mirror her endeavor was fated to fail from the start.

"I will accompany you, Oni-sama! I will make sure that you are protected from everything here." She said that with confidence, and on the first impression she would even have a valiant look… if it wasn't for one of her hands approaching my crotch while she was panting.

Sighing a bit, I put my hand above hers and stopped her movement toward that 'restricted area'. I prefer not to let her do this at least until I actually start dating her.

I then looked at her and could see in her eyes that she was nervous, afraid even. I guess I can understand why. I mean we are surrounded by so many devils and some of them are closer to enemies than allies so seeing me walk away in this situation must be too much for her. The other girls can deal with this better because of the fact that they are used to my stupidity or have confidence about my strength, but Kuroko was not quite there especially since she saw me butting heads with Vali not long ago.

I smiled at her and accepted her request, knowing that it would be meaningless to try otherwise. She was quite protective of me after all.

As we started walking to the infirmary to see Rias and her peerage I kept talking to Sairaorg, Okuyasu, and Kuroko to pass the time. It was quite fun to talk to them, it is a shame that Serenity did not join in but I know that she is VERY shy so I expected as much (even if that moving shadow in the bathroom some time ago did NOT seem shy at all, and no one will make me believe that there was no such shadow).

Approaching the door I noticed that inside there was Rias and the others, the only exception was Issei that was sitting on the floor outside. He was holding his knees, his eyes bloodshot and he was clenching his fists so much that his nail perforated the skin enough for blood to leak.

Seeing this I understood what was happening to him very fast, I went through the same exact thing when I went on my first mission and saw what happened when I got there to late. The self-hate and guilt I felt when I saw Seryu, a girl that I did not even know back then, hurt to that point, with her whole life destroyed in front of her eyes.

Seeing this and knowing that it was ALL because of me, let's just say that I was not happy at all. The only thing that kept me balanced that time was seeing her safe and sound.

Issei is facing something entirely different, but the feelings he is having are probably quite similar. He trained so hard, did all he could, but he saw his own powerlessness right on his face. It might have been a game but he understands that if it was real if it was out there… he would have failed with no 'try again' this times.

Sighing a bit, I turned to the others and asked them to go on ahead. Serenity and Kuroko did not want that, but I told them that I wanted to talk to Issei alone (something that I would never do before he proved himself as more than just a pervert). The two understood and with unpleased faces entered the infirmary. I know that they will heal everyone in there, Okuyasu's sacred gear is just that good, and now I have to focus on this one.

I turned to Issei and said in a loud tone.

"For how long do you intend to stay like that?"

He jumped a bit, clearly startled by my 'sudden' intrusion. He must be really out of it if he did not notice me approaching up until now. I also noticed that his eyes are not that full of the light they usually emanated all the time.

"…So? For how long do you intend to keep feeling sorry for yourself?" I asked again. I know it is not the best choice of words, some might think that he needs comforting and things like that. I disagree.

When someone is like that they need something to push them forward, to strive for. For me, it was my desire to NEVER let something like that happen again under my watch, and if I have to I will push him myself.

He remained quiet while looking at me, rage clear in his previously empty eyes, and even after a few seconds he just glared. Nothing more and nothing less.

Seeing this I continued.

"I saw the game," I saw a flash of anger when I said the word 'game', now I understand what I have to do even better. "and you were terrible. You completely and utterly failed in doing anything you should have. You promised to protect Koneko, and she had to protect and heal you in the end; Kiba defended you until his absolute limit, and you could not even react in time to help him; Rias needed your power in the end, and you ignored her for your own petty revenge." The glare he was giving me was less and less of a glare and more and more the look of a puppy that got kicked by the end of it.

Well, too bad for you because I will not stop now.

"The only reason why Rias won was because Raiser got tired of being rejected. That was all, you did not make a difference. Even though you have a Longinus, one of the strongest weapons in the whole world at your disposal, you failed it a-"

"DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!" his first words were accompanied with him slamming me against the wall. I could have avoided it, he was not in top form after all, but decided to let him go at it. He needed to vent, and I am the best option for that right now. "It was all my fault. Despite my training, I could not do anything! I wanted to help but only got in the way. I *sob*- I should not have been there." Tears started leaving his eyes. His frustration and emotions clearly overwhelming him to his very limit. "If I was not there, then maybe things would have been different. They should never have to babysit me. *sob**sob* I wish they had never met m-"

PUNCH

I punched him in the gut, right when he was saying a thing he would have regretted.

As he fell to the ground I repeated my words.

"For how long do you intend to keep feeling sorry for yourself? What? You think they would have preferred that? That they would want to never have met you?" I asked rhetorically. "Stop putting words on their mouths! You are just running away." I then crouched so as to get on the same line of sight than him and continued. "You are rock bottom. You could not be in any worst position than now, you failed them and yourself." I then stood up and said. "But isn't it great?"

He looked at me confused.

"What is so great about this? It is like you said, I am rock bottom and what is great about it?"

I then gave him a cocky smile and said.

"If you are rock bottom, then there is only one course left for you now. Going up!" He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time since I got here, some of the light from before returning to his eyes. "Train Issei, get strong enough so as to not let yourself lose to anyone and to be powerful enough to protect those you want without fail. Isn't this cooler than staying here feeling sorry for yourself?"

The light on his eyes fully returned now… no, they didn't simply return, they had grown even stronger now.

He then stood up and bowed to me.

"Thank you, Castiel-san. I needed that." He then stood up and said. "I will go and look for buchou and the others now." At that, he smiled and left me there.

"Yeah, let's go. But just a heads up, even if you get stronger I will always be two steps ahead." I told him with a confident smile.

"Shut it bishounen." He almost yelled at me, which I released a small amused chuckle to. He is just to easy to tease and irritate.

"But seriously, try to sue that spell again when I am around or even cogitate the possibility of using it on any of the girls that are with me and I can assure you that your death will NOT be painless or fast." I said releasing my killing intent at his direction, with which he could only nod his head. I don't care about the political implications, he tries to use this on one of the girls that are with me and I WILL neutralize him for good.

Now that that is done I can go and see Rias and her peerage as well. The situation with Gasper worries me a bit, that reaction of his was not normal at all.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

At the cabin where Emily and the others were a light conversation was taking place.

Amidst the talks, Emily decided to ask Yuno something that was bugging her.

"Hey, Yuno-chan, can I ask you something?"

Yuno looked at her and said.

"Sure."

"Why did you not follow Castiel? Normally you would have done the exact same thing that Kuroko did, so why did you not do it?"

Yuno looked at her like she was looking at an idiot.

"Because I don't want to get anywhere close to him right now."

THAT stopped everyone that knew her in their tracks. Yuno not wanting to be near Castiel was as likely as an alien descend on this world.t. Well, technically the funders of the Tower could count as aliens for this dimension, but that is beside the point

And then Yuno said the reasoning why, and everyone clearly understood why she said that. After hearing what Yun had to say NO ONE wanted to go anywhere near Castiel right now. Not when they knew what was coming.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

As I approached the door to Rias door I saw someone standing in the way that I did not notice early. Normally I would prepare myself to attack or defend depending on the situation as anyone that can appear in front of me undetected was not to be underestimated.

On this case, however, I knew exactly what I should do.

I turned my back to someone that many people consider the most dangerous individual to have ever liver...

AND RAN LIKE CRAZY!

.

.

.

I manage to get five steps in before he reappeared in front of me. Clear amusement on his face as he put his hands on my armpits and raised me and started turning round and round.

"Have you missed me, my dear god-son?"

"... do you really want to hear the answer to that?" I asked and he could not help but laugh at this.

Yep, here is me. Someone that manipulated two great devil houses and is known as the heir to one of the most prominent organizations on the modern world, now being swung around by an old man like I was a little child.

And that is how I re-met my godfather Kischur Zelretch, the one and only user of the kaleidoscope, the second true magic. A man that is more powerful than any God of this world and the biggest prankster there ever was across all dimensions (his own words, that, sadly enough for me, ring true).

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I am sorry for taking this long. My notebook took a turn for the worse and I will be taking it to see if they have a new screen for me to use as soon as possible. I don't know how this will work out, but I will try to keep a schedule of one chapter for week at the absolute least and no need to worry about me running out any time soon since I have up to chap 77 done and ready.**

 **But back to better things, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I particularly enjoyed writing the more political stuff, and what I said is the truth. In politics everyone uses one another to try and get the best deal possible for themselves.**

 **If everything goes well tomorrow and my screen is fast to fix I will be sending you guys a pack of three chapters at once just to commemorate, if not, well I will do as I said before by releasing one chapter for weak.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, bye.**


	49. Chapter 44

Castiel P.O.V.

I hate this.

"Run! You got to run faster! Do you want to be roosted or what?!" Zelretch said.

As I feel the magma approaching my back as I ran for dear life I could only think two things. One is that I hate all of this, the second is…

HOW THE HELL DID IT END UP THIS WAY?

Let's go back a few minutes.

I saw my godfather Zelretch for the first time in almost two years, and I can honestly say that those were good years.

As Zelretch swung me around like a baby I saw a flash of steel coming toward his back at high speed. I tried to stop it, but before I could say anything a multicolored barrier made out of magic surrounded the old bat and thus protecting him.

As the figure trying to give Zelretch a new hole came to a halt I saw who it was, and honestly, I am not surprised. She was likely the only one here that would do such a thing, as the others know I am not in completely mortal danger and getting mixed with Zelretch is not something to be desired.

"And who is this one, another girl from your harem?" Zelretch said with a smug smile that made me want to kick his ass out of sheer principle.

Seeing that she was also confused about all this, if her eyes that refuse to look at my direction but look at me from the time to time with a wishful look, I decided to explain what is happening.

"*sigh* You can stop trying to attack him Serenity. His name is Zelretch, he is the strongest master of a space-time magic capable of traveling through dimensions and everything. And he is also my Godfather." I then looked at Zelretch and said. "Uncle Zelretch" he scowled a bit at those words, if memory serves me right he prefers being called 'my favorite person in the world Zelretch', but I prefer to die than call him that. "her name is Serenity. She is someone that I am helping due to her problems."

He smiled mischievously and said.

"Is the problem a 'special' type of itch that she wants to be scratched?"

At this, my face has probably turned blood red, if it is for embarrassment or outrage I don't know. I mean Serenity doesn't feel that way about me at all so hearing this is offensive for her.

"Of course not. I am helping her due to her body generating an extremely dangerous poison at all times and my purification abilities being capable of helping her. She suffered enough for many lifetimes and after seeing what she went through I decided to protect her for as long as I breathe." At that, she looked at me, her eyes with a small glister of tears. "And she definitely doesn't like me on a man and woman way so we obviously ain't doing what you just said." And just like that, the look she was giving me was transformed into a deadpan.

Seeing this Zelretch released a sigh. He then turned to look at Serenity for the first time (ignoring the fact that he is scaring me as a sack of potatoes on his fucking shoulders!) and was about to say something, when he stopped and started looking much more intensely at her.

"Interesting. Very interesting." Is what he said, and it honestly terrified me. It was a well-known fact that Zelretch is always looking for things that he might find interesting so knowing that he found her interesting really did not sit well with me.

"What is interesting, uncle Zelretch?" I asked, trying to act as a 'good little brat'.

He did not seem to notice my question for some time and, after a few seconds, he finally said.

"Her condition, my dear godson, is very interesting. She seems to have somehow connected with an ancestor of hers and fused with it."

Hearing this I instantly felt terrified. Messing with souls is always complicated and fusing a soul with part of another is BEYOND dangerous.

Serenity did not seem to care about it, I don't know if she had already known that or if she did not understand it, but I need to ask one question first and foremost.

"I-Is she going to be okay?"

Zelretch looked at me and then smiled and said.

"There is nothing to worry about. She had already fully stabilized and will have no problems with it anymore. What I meant for interesting is the fact that her soul connected to someone that should not even BE possible to connect." He explained. At first, I was relieved, but hearing the fact that her soul connected to something that should not be possible made me feel terrified all over again.

"A-and who did she connect with?" I asked.

Zelretch opened his mouth to speak, but the one to answer was not him.

"The one that is fused with me is the assassin servant Hassan of Serenity, she once served as one of the Hassan-i-Sabbah and was the origin of the legend of the 'Poison Girl'." Serenity said, shocking me.

Did she know about all this? And, if so, why did she not tell me anything?

And, if there was some danger still involved, how could I even try to help her if I did not know of her circumstances?

"Since when did you know all this?" I asked, trying to be as dignified as a teen lying on the shoulders of an old man can be. Which means that if she was not laughing at this I was already a winner.

"I knew this since the moment that you manage to fulfill her and my wish. That was the moment that the two of us finally 'became one'." She explained.

I could not help but tilt my head at that. What wish was she talking about that her and the heroic spirit desired that I manage to fulfill?

"What wish is that?" I asked, my curiosity not being contained at all.

"To find someone that we could be with without fear of dying just because of our presence." At that, I could not help but act like I swallowed a fly. That particular fact about her past was not one I took pleasure to remember and if anything I just wanted to go back in time and help her before things went to shit. "And not only that, you even gave me the chance of living like a normal girl, even if only when close to you. For that, both of us decided to serve and be with you no matter what."

As she finished I saw her completely earnest eyes looking straight to me and I could not help but look to the side bashfully. Hearing this from her was embarrassing on its own way.

However, it was not just me that was there, and if the clapping sound was anything to go by Zelretch quite approved of Serenity.

"Wonderful. Simply wonderful. To see such pure emotions of love blooming is just so wonderful, no matter how many times I had seen it." He then put a serious face and said. "I approve it. You can be with my dear godson. I give you my blessings."

As he said that I wanted to protest, but for some reason just decided to roll with it. It is not like she wants to be with me in this sort of situation… right?

Honestly, I don't know what to think for sure. I don't have any experience with a girl NOT being extremely and absurdly direct in their advances or being engaged to me before I can even say anything about it so anything like subtlety is beyond me.

Zelretch then straightened up and said.

"For as fun as this, all is I have something that I have to do now." I could feel sweat rolling down my back when he said that as I can imagine what he has come to do. He didn't do it last year and it is approaching this year so I can only think of one thing that he might be after this time.

"It is time to give you your present, my dear godson!"

And with those words, I was blinded as a flash of light surrounded me on all sides.

* * *

When I managed to see again I realized that this must be what Zelretch planned for this time. As I see all those metal blocks fluctuating and an insufferable heat all around I could only imagine that he transported me to some dimension with lacking physics and even went one step further to send me on an active volcano.

As I started looking for clues about what I should do I noticed a metal box on a rock not far from me. Inside there is a communicator so as to let him talk to me. I reluctantly put it on my ears and waited.

"Test, test, do you hear me?" I heard his voice on the communicator. Not even bothering in containing my sigh I just let it out and said.

"Where did you take me this time, uncle Zelretch?"

"Well… you know how I enjoy anything that can distract me, right? Well I decided to do something special for this time around and this is the result, go ahead and you will probably understand what I did."

Fearing what he did, and seeing no point in avoiding it I went ahead.

After walking for about 500 meters I saw something. I can only say that I am trying not to twitch seeing this, I mean…

WHY THE HELL IS THERE A MECHALOID HAT ROBOT FRIM MEGAMAN IN HERE?

Wait, don't tell me?

And then one of the theme songs of Mega Man started playing, the music from the lava mission.

I hate all of this.

* * *

After dealing with that robot, and a thousand more (they just kept appearing, it is like a zombie apocalypse with robots), I can only say that I now respect the Mega man a whole lot more. Those little fuckers are tiresome to defeat and the fact that they can do sneak attacks using PLASMA GUNS really unnerves me (and that Zelretch imbued the hats from those robots with some strange magic to repel any and all attacks did not help AT ALL).

And that was not even the worse part. I had to run away from the periodical fire explosions that happens every three minutes and escalate jumping from floating stone to floating stone so as to go ahead without touching those rotating pikes that are releasing a dangerous amount of energy while also being fast enough to avoid the recurring vulcanic eruption that also happened every once in a while.

I honestly can say that this was not how I visualized my day going.

As I walked into a part made of metal with the boss room vibe approaching I could not help but imagine what I will get out of this shithole. It is always depending on 'luck' as I once got a spirit bone and other times I had a stinking bomb right to the face.

The fact that I am now on a lava pit makes me wonder what is going to happen to me next? Who is it that I will face.

As I approach the door that will let me in to see the boss of this dungeon I start to look over myself. I got no more phoenix tears and other restorative items due to a need to heal myself of many plasma shots that punctured my body, my battle uniform is also in tatters and my hair is burnt in the tips. I also am almost entirely covered in volcanic snot and can't even see properly due to it covering my face.

I can only say that if I have a stinky bomb to my face after all that I will make my life objective to hunt down Zelretch.

As I see the door to the boss fight I take a deep breath. Being out of breath and nervous will accomplish nothing here.

Looking inside I see something that made me at the same time terrified and eager to fight. It is **Magma Dragoon** , a maverick robot that has dragon claws and head while maintaining a body closely resembling a human. If memory serves me right he was the fire boss from Mega Man X4.

As the robot sees me he smirks and says.

"Finally a challenger has come. This place has been desolate for far too long and I need to fight someone already." After saying that he immediately jumped and punched me, or at least tried to.

I ducked to the side and used Kupriotes to try and cut him up, but it did not go so well since at the moment the blade touched him it failed in cutting the metal he was made of and the sword started going red due to the heat liberated by its body. Seeing this I abandoned the thought of using this sword since it obviously would not work well against him.

I could not use Clarent due to it refusing to be used by me right now (it is a fickle blade that only listens to me when it wants to) or Hruting (this one is an even worse combination for robots since they have no blood for it to fest the blade would be just a regular one and if this one is damaged in any way it would be a disaster for me). Gandiva is even more out of question since any strong attack of it carries flame energy which would be rendered less than useless against this guy.

Seeing no other choice, I decided that the best I can do right now is to depend on magic. Luckily I managed to reach low high-class, and every time someone reaches a new class their reserves and quality of energy is raised by many times, so now I can finally start using some of the stuff I learned from Caster and Lancer without that much problem in live combat situations.

When I finished thinking this through I realized that I stopped moving for two seconds, a bad idea that I regret as I failed to evade a spinning kick delivered by the robot. My clothes that are already tattered get even worse as now there is a hole right on the belly where this robot hit. Not only that as I also feel that some of my organs were shacked in a not gentle way which is causing me some pain.

At least this kick managed to give me some space between the two of us.

I decided to ignore all of that and instead put my hand in front of myself and started writing runes at the fastest speed I possibly can. The robot did not understand what I was doing as it continued rushing towards me.

Fool.

When he got three meters I finished the runes that I wanted, launching the magic on them. Instantly afterward he was surrounded by a dome of water, and not just any water but a heavy special type that had an ebullition point of 200 degrees due to a higher pressure it has. Runes are just way too useful, a reminder to self: study more of it and witchcraft the first chance I got. Before my advancement, to low high-class this spell would cost me a fourth of my reserves but now it only costs less than 3%.

Honestly, if I was like this before my fight against those monstrosities I could have defeated them much easier.

As the **Magma Dragoon** was releasing a torrent of flames to evaporate the water dome I started chanting at high speeds. I know that the dome will not be capable of keeping him in place for very long, but I don't need it to. I also started scribing runes with my feet directly on the ground, just as a precaution.

What can I say? I learned to multi-task long ago.

As the robot finally managed to release himself from the dome I was about to finish the spell I intended. Seeing the fluctuations of magic, I was releasing it made a pose not so different from a Kamehameha and shouted.

" **Hadoken**!"

It is a proof of my concentration that I managed to maintain the chanting even after hearing those words. Another note to self, never let Zelretch see something like One-Punch Man. If he can do this with the mega man alone I don't even want to imagine facing the serious series, I'd die way too fast.

As the robot used the attack three giant fireballs where released from his hands. Even when they were far from me I could feel a heat that would not lose out even when compared to Raiser's flames.

Realizing that this attack would be bad news for me I activated the runs I just made, making the floor in front of me rise in the form of a shield so as to protect myself. I understand that it would not be enough for me to be fully protected against those flames, but I never hoped for it to be enough to fully protect myself I just wanted to weaken them and give me the time needed for the chanting to complete.

And it worked. The wall holds up for four more seconds, plenty of time for me to finish the spell, and so I formed four magic balls on my surroundings that released laser at those three flame attacks, vanquishing them.

I smirk seeing that, that is until I feel that something is wrong. I realized that the robot is no longer in front of me, actually I don't even see him. My instincts are the only thing that saved me as I jumped back without even thinking, avoiding a Dive Kick he has made.

I can only sweet drop when I see the damage made on the ground. A crater was created on the impact zone, clearly showing how strong the attack was. It did not stop there as the robot crouched a bit and then did a follow-up attack.

" **Shoryuken**!" A jumping uppercut that resembled a fiery rising meteor was executed. I managed to evade it somehow, but my chest still got more burn marks which hurt quite a lot.

However, it did not deter me as I started releasing a torrent of magic lasers at him. Seeing him with many scratches and kneads really warms my heart.

Revenge is so sweet.

After exchanging a few attacks, he releasing a torrent of flames unto me one after the other and I used a magic laser on him. We both are covered in wounds now, but my situation is a bit better since I casted some healing blessings that continuously heal me. The healing is not nearly as powerful as a Raiser or the others from the Phoenix Clan, but it still is an advantage that my enemy doesn't have.

The problem now is that maintaining this energy influx is hard for me as I can feel that I now have just about 35% of my original reserves. The enemy is not faring any better since the flames he is liberating are not coming with an equal frequency of before and the power behind them is also not the same as before.

I can, however, realize that this fight is coming to an end now since he seems to be accumulating his power to release a final all-out attack. If I beat this I win, if not… well, I think Zelretch will come and take me away before it is too late.

The **Magma Dragoon** then looked at me, clear disdain on his eyes as he said.

"Not bad, inferior creature. If you were a maverick like me you might have been made a general possible above me, but you are just a lowly inferior life form! Now, I will make you pay for daring to face us Mavericks!" He then started shooting a giant torrent of flames for his mouth directly to the top of the cave, an amount clearly much greater than anything he has done before.

Seeing this I remembered what that meant, and could not help but fear it. Especially when those flames that hit the walls forced them to fall in my direction, all covered in flames that would resemble meteors. If it was just one or two, heck even if it was ten or twenty of those I could deal with them easily enough. On the other hand, those two FUCKING HUNDRED were NOT something I could deal with easily enough.

If anything it was WAY above what I would normally be able to handle with ANY safety.

I released my FIELD at max power, all so that I can try and evade as many of those meteors as possible. It was not enough as I was hit head first at least 8 times with rocks that made me think of my survival training with Berserker.

I am now covered in bruises and burn marks, at least half my body is wounded to some degree and the other half is burned by the magma and heat from those rocks. If it wasn't for the constant healing of the healing blessing I could very well have passed out or worse.

Luckily I had a blessing helping me there so I managed to survive that attack, even if barely. If there were just a few dozens more I would have been defeated, no questions asked.

On the other hand, I could see that the **Magma Dragoon** was far from alright. He probably used that as a last ditch attack in hopes of finishing me off and failed.

I then looked at him as I walked in his direction. Even when I was walking quite slowly due to the many burns and cracks on my bones on the legs he remained in place, no energy to move right now whatsoever.

I decided to say a few words to him before I finished this for good.

"It seems that I am not that inferior after all."

He just hung his head, clearly accepting that he lost. I then used what I have left of energy to direct the magic bombardment to his head, ending this fight and his life for good.

CLAP CLAP CLAP

I heard the sound of someone clapping behind me, and I knew perfectly well who it was.

"Was this good enough, uncle Zelretch?"

The old bat simply nodded his head, clearly happy with the results.

"It went even better than I expected! I am glad to see that you have grown stronger now, and here" He made a box appear on top of his hand. "Is your birthday present."

Dreading this quite a bit I took the present.

As I opened I saw something I recognize.

Something I already got two of. And that I honestly can say that is most likely extremely useful.

It was a dark object, beautiful designs all over it and exuding an extremely powerful energy fluctuation.

It was a left arm spirit bone.

Feeling its power, I feel something resonating with it, a clear sense of desire and expectation was born from Hruting as soon as I had this object in my hands.

"This is a spirit bone born from the world-devouring wolf that I had slain a few years ago. I know that it will be useful to you" Zelretch said with a smile and then a dangerous glint was on his eyes. "Now I know you are tired, so off you go, you have other things to take care of. I will come to see you when I have the time. Maybe I could even take you to a special place I was making some time ago to pass the time, it is almost finished and when it is I will show you."

As he said that I saw a flash similar to the one before and I then saw myself falling from 300 meters above the building I was watching the game before.

I did not scream as all I could do was fume in anger, I mean I already am more than spent, am tired as fuck, and now I have to deal with this BS.

I can honestly say that being with Zelretch is NEVER that good.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.**

 **First, when someone had the soul of a hero from the past I will put that he has a connection with the heroic spirit version of said individual. And for that I must inform you all that Heracles will not be appearing in this fic, I will replace him with another person that I hope will be more interesting.**

 **Second, in case you have never played Mega Man, the Magma Dragon does have these attacks. I was not joking around, you can even go check on the mega man wiki and you will see that I was right.**

 **Third, the last comment from Zelretch about something he was making has to do with something me and a friend of mine are working with right now. I will reveal more of it later, but I do think you guys will enjoy it.**

 **And for those who want to know, I will probably post the next chapter in 3 to 4 days. It will take that long due to me being on vacation and my travel tomorrow night, I am going to go visit family.**

 **Anyway, subscribe, favorite, and review as you see fit. I always look at all reviews and answer then (if they are not pure bashing).**

 **Next chapter I will return with Sona and Tsubaki, it has been too long since those two made an appearance. Don't worry, the two will appear more in the future (it is just too good to write Tsubaki daydreaming scenes).**


	50. Chapter 45

Castiel P.O.V.

As I reentered the building I try to not get anyone's attention as I am quite a sorry figure right now. My body is full of burn marks, my clothes are barely covering anything and I am so tired that I just want to lay down and pass out cold.

But, this really isn't my day.

"What happened here, Emiya-kun?" I heard a voice saying not long after I entered the place again. Sighing tiredly, I turned to see who it was and saw one of the people that I least wanted to see me like this.

Turning to look at who it was and I saw two stern and stoic faces looking directly at me. This is the first time I am seeing these two in almost two weeks.

"Hello Sona-Kaichou, Tsubaki-Fukukaichou." The two looking at me are Sona Sitri and her **Queen** Tsubaki Shinra. The two are very well dressed, with long elegant dresses that are extremely beautiful in both of them. I tried to give them a smile, but honestly, I could not do it even when trying.

Wait, why is everything turningblaaaccccckkkk-

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

I have no clue about what is happening

I am now outside of the building where I and my queen (that is right beside me) were watching the game between Rias and Raiser.

While I was seeing the game I could not help but think that this was all unfair.

Rias and I are friends since childhood so I know perfectly well that she did not use to train her peerage even nearly enough. In comparison, I and my peerage had trained much more and for much longer, but suddenly I see that she has suppressed us all.

The training she received from the Tower must have been really amazing.

Ahh~~, the Tower. That is one place I want to, at the absolute least, visit one day.

The Tower is a symbol that it is possible to teach people of different social status and species in the same place. As my dream is to create a rating game school for the low-class and mid-class devils, to give every devil a chance for greatness. As such seeing and understanding how the Tower work is something I really would like to do.

I wanted to use this time after the match to go see Castiel. He is the heir to them and I am an heiress myself so we have the necessary authority to start the talks about a future alliance. Unfortunately, I could not find him, a fact that was made even more painfully clear due to the sadness that Tsubaki getting more and more sad.

She has been like this for the whole week. I wanted to give her more energy so I brought her here in hopes that she might talk with him, or look at him, or do anything really. It is infuriating that she seems to be incapable of even talking with him properly even though she spends so much time talking ABOUT him to me.

After searching throughout the building we managed to talk to the last person that saw him, Issei. He apparently had disappeared for the last 10 minute out of thin air, and even stranger is that no one from the Tower seems to be worried about his safety.

Seeing as we could not do anything more I and Tsubaki decided to go outside to catch a breath of fresh air, we barely got out of the room assigned to us when we saw the man we were searching for.

He was in a terrible shape. He is all hurt and burned, I tried to talk to him and understand what was going on but as soon as he started talking he passed out cold.

Before I could even try to do something Tsubaki took action. She rushed in his direction and carefully took him in her arms, following that she rushed right back to our room and started looking at him intensely to see if he was okay. Her face turned deathly white after a while and then she turned to me and said.

"Sona-sama, he needs immediate help! Please give him a Phoenix Tear."

I can honestly say that I am conflicted. Even though I want to help him I only have this one dose of Phoenix Tear as it is too expensive and I saw no need to buy more. As such, spending this one bottle with Castiel, especially since the relationship between the two sides is not that close, is not something I can do lightly.

Ah, those earnest eyes. Tsubaki was looking at me with such earnest eyes, clearly not believing for a single second that I might not help him. He better be grateful to her as otherwise, I would probably not use this.

After using the Phoenix Tear on him his injuries and burns were healed at a visible speed. He would most likely wake up in a few minutes' tops. Normally this would be my lost since I spent such a precious item just like that, but seeing as Tsubaki was smiling again and the relieve on her face made it worth it. Now, what should I do?

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

I don't know where I am, but this must be heaven. Well, at least my head is in heaven, this pillow I am using is just so good. I turned to the side and put my hands on the pillow, this creamy and wonderful feeling is wonderful. I just want to sleep a bit mo-

"COUGH! COUGH!... For how long do you intend to continue to sleep." A stern voice said to me. I opened my eyes and what I am seeing is… confusing.

I mean Sone Sitri is looking daggers at me and Tsubaki is… giving me a lap pillow?

Wait. Does that mean… yep, my hand is feeling her legs up while I am laying on her lap.

I instantly jumped away from that spot as soon as my mind processed what happened. I noticed that Tsubaki looked a bit sad at that, probably feeling bad that someone that she doesn't even talk to started feeling her up (I better not think about how amazing it was, clouded mind or not the sensation of her thighs was still that good).

I gave a weak cough so as to try and dispel the bad mood that was in the room. I also realized that my wounds are all healed up, and considering that I probably did not pass-out for that long which means that they must have used a Phoenix Tear on me.

Gratitude, that is the one word that can describe what I am feeling right now. I know that I may usually have a lot of those items, but I also understand that this is a rare commodity that most high-class devils don't even have, so knowing that they used it on me just like that made me extremely grateful.

"Thank you, Sona-Kaichou. I needed the help and the fact that you provided it will not be forgotten." I said to Sona.

She nodded and said.

"No need to say this, you are a student from my school so helping you is just obvious."

I shook my head and said.

"No, no. I still must do something to help you back, it is only proper. Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked, ideas about what I could do to help her back flooding my mind.

She was about to say something, but then stopped in her tracks. A strange look on her face as she seemed to be considering something. After a few seconds, she said.

"If you insist, I want the same thing you proposed to Rias." Sona said.

.

.

.

.

.

Well… isn't that interesting.

It is funny, I was here thinking on how to propose an alliance with house Sitri and now she is asking for it herself. Really, the world works in mysterious ways.

"Well, what do you have in mind exactly?" I asked, turning my persona into a negotiating type. There is a need for me to think this way as I simply refuse to enter any sort of deal that might be bad for the Tower. I must protect its best interests at all times.

"How about you help us in training and allow for me and my peerage to go visit the Tower in exchange we can do an exchange of intel about magic. Our water and ice type magic in exchange for your know-how about magecraft and the different schools' of magic." Sona proposed after sitting down on a chair that was in the room. Seeing her actions, I sat on the couch as it was the only other place in the room for me to sit and stay up while the other party is sitting down is not a good thing in this sort of scenarios.

Strangely enough, Tsubaki remained sitting on the couch beside me instead of staying beside her king. It is not a problem per say, even though it remains strange.

Now, about that proposition. It is tempting, no questions about that, as it is a well-known fact that the house Sitri is one of the best when it comes to knowledge about everything water-related and that would be a great boom for the Tower as the Tower's main objective is the study of magic till the very limit. But, we can't simply give them full access to all our research as it would be against the laws of any decent magus.

Now, what do I do with this?

"This is a great proposition. So much so that I don't even know how to respond, but this matter and the fact that you helped me are different altogether. I can't put the decisions about the future of the Tower in the balance depending on my own feelings, so I think we should leave the talks of an alliance for another time when we can discuss in a more proper environment. In exchange, I agree to let you and your peerage to visit the Tower, help you guys in training and I can agree to one other request as long as it is not related to the Tower." I said.

There is no way I am making harsh decisions when the betterment of the Tower is involved. Before we can even begin to talk about an alliance we need to find a proper location where there is no chance of eavesdroppers on the walls, thing that I can't say we can have now considering that we are on a building full to the brim with old devils and no one in heaven or hell can convince me that there aren't at the absolute least 8 spies listening in on us this instant. I mean I am seeing five such spies right now thanks to me mystic eye.

As Sona heard my words she didn't seem affected, I bet that she already expected such answer from me. Her reputation for being smart and a talented future leader is well deserved. After, a while a sly smile surged on her pretty face, one that I am oh so used thanks to having to deal with Rin and other sly women all my life.

Sona then continued with a counter proposition.

"If it would be impossible to talk about this matter now I have a question for you. Do you already is contracted to any devil?"

Well, isn't that an interesting question. It is a well-known fact that most, if not all magicians make contracts with supernatural beings. It is mostly nothing that absurd, generally it is just an exchange of magic research material that is provided by both sides and an agreement to help one another in moments of crisis as it is possible to summon the other at any time.

It is quite normal and normally it only lasts for about five to ten years and I was thinking of doing one myself sometime. Maybe with Sairaorg, but it would be mostly useless as he only knows how to fight (not that someone at his level needs more than that).

"Well, to be honest, I don't have any contracted devil right now. Why do you ask?"

Sona smile got even bigger when she said.

"So my second request id for you to contract with Tsubaki."

.

.

.

.

WHAT?

Why would Sona want me to form a contract with Tsubaki? I mean, I can understand how useful this would be not only for Tsubaki as I could help her get much stronger band it would also help in the negotiations as we would be in closer grounds from the get go and could use the contract as an excuse for the other groups and clans to not think that we are planning something.

The Tower already is allied with the house Bael (we helped Sairaorg and are in a good relationship with Zekran Bael), the house Phoenix (my father died helping them rescue Ravel and I helped her in a tight spot due to that ASSHOLIC BARBARIC IDIOT THAT ONE DAY I WILL GUT ALIVE), the house Astaroth (the Maou Ajuka Beelzebub is the contracted devil of Sakura, but that green bastard doesn't help) and now we are also connected with house Gremory due to our recent deal with them. If we suddenly make this alliance, we could raise the suspicion with the other devil houses that could end up attacking us in the dark or in the open.

On the other hand, if I am in a contract with Tsubaki, the **Queen** of the next head of house Sitri, the suspicion will be lessened somewhat.

But, before I can accept I must make this question to Tsubaki herself.

"Tsubaki, do you want to enter a contract with me?"

* * *

Tsubaki P.O.V.

YES! Yes, yes, yes, a hundred times YES!

It has finally come! My chance of deepening my relationship with him.

We start as contracted magician and devil, and before we know it I am using a beautiful dress and walking down the aisle with him by my side. I can even imagine the beautiful children we will have, with my intelligence and his looks. All will be perfect! But, where do we go on our honeymoon? Maybe Paris, or the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Speaking of beaches I need to buy a new bikini, my old one is getting tight on my chest, or maybe it is better to use it like that to see his reactions.

No, he would probably tell me to go put another more conservative one as only he can look at me like that. And then he would put me on his arms and kiss me in such a hot way that my bikini will be removed before I even know how and-

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

See? This is the problem.

It is clear that she doesn't like me. No matter what I ask her she always simply start glaring at me and don't say anything while liberating a strange aura around her that makes me feel strangely threatened, not in a 'will die way' but a different feeling that I just feel sometimes with the girls even though the girls liberate it in a much lesser dose (except for Yuno).

"…so? Do you want it or not?" I asked again. This time she answered.

"Yes, if it is fine for you I would not mind it."

Well, at least she answered this time.

Strangely enough, Sona is making an exasperated face seeing this. She probably wanted Tsubaki and me to be more enthusiastic about it, personally, I don't mind this contract but it is pretty obvious that Tsubaki is forcing herself. She even needed some time to think the words and say them in a not overly robotic way.

After that, it was mostly the formalities to form the contract between me and Tsubaki and then I was out of there. I still need to go look for somewhere quiet and peaceful for me to absorb this spirit bone I received from Zelretch as it is quite a delicate and painful process.

Strangely enough, I could walk not even ten steps out of the room and Serenity was already by my side, and I in another ten Kuroko appeared and clang to me.

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

Well, that went just as good as I could have expected.

I managed to get authorization to visit the Tower and showed an interest in creating an alliance which would make the house Sitri stronger.

We may be the very best in water magic, but in the end, water magic is not that effective in a direct confrontation. While there are some that grow just as strong, if not stronger, than the others most lower rank of our servants usually fall behind when it comes to pure magic powers. If we can create a good and close relation to the Tower we can obtain some new magic researches and also be capable of buying mystic codes that would make us much stronger as a whole instead of depending on the name of my sister and the special guards trained by her queen.

And a bonus is that the second request that I did was accepted quite easily. That means that Tsubaki now has a good reason to stay close to him and maybe she can start talking to him properly, instead of this mess that she is whenever he is around.

I then turned to Tsubaki and opened my mouth to ask what did she think of all this, but decided to not bother. She has that stupid face while flushing all over. Any tentative of conversation now would be as useful as talking to a wall, a specialy deaf wall at that.

*sigh* I am too young for this shit.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

After returning to the room with the others I saw that there was a new person in there, the rook of Syrzechs Hozuki.

Before he could even begin to discuss anything I said.

"Would it be possible to leave this conversation for another day? I am honest to God" The flash of a headache he had was something 'completely 'unintentional' to me " too tired to deal with anything else right now. I just ran for over three hours inside an active volcano and had to face at the very least 600 robots that launched lasers at me. Not only that I had to fight against a robot that launched flames that are nothing to scoff at and not being enough I was released over 400 meters in the air for a sky fall." I then took a deep breath and said. "I honestly could not be made to give a damn about anything right now. We can talk about business tomorrow morning as I will be in Kuoh anyway."

You know, this is the reason why I like Hozuki more than the others from Syrzechs peerage, he can see when he is not welcome. After listening to what I said he nodded and said that he will come to see me at a later day, then he left the room.

THIS! This is what someone in his position should be like! I can honestly say that he was by far the best choice that Syrzechs had on his peerage.

After that, the others looked at me a bit interested, but to explain why all of this happened I just had to say a single word.

"Zelretch."

And everyone in here nodded in understanding, except Miku but she will hear about him later anyway so there is no real problem there.

"Did you at least got anything for the trouble?" Emily asked, clearly knowing how bad this kind of things can go.

I nodded and said.

"Yep, and this time it was good stuff." I then showed them the spirit bone I had received.

Looking at it and feeling its power the others could not help but be a bit shocked. This thing here is releasing much more energy than my previous two. It probably is a spirit bone born from a beast with more than 100 thousand years old, possibly 4 or 5 hundred if this is the energy the bone is releasing. It still is classified as a 100 thousand years old bone, but the energy and skill's quality in it are on another level.

Getting excited about the prospect of receiving a new bone I decided then and there that I would absorb it already. So I asked for the others to make a perimeter around me so as to make absolutely sure that no one could distract me while I am absorbing this spirit bone.

This place may not be perfect for a long shot, but the deterrence I will get out of this is great news. I know that there are spies looking at us right now, and when they report that they felt a terrifying object and that I absorbed it the others will probably think that I am stronger than I actually am, making them reluctant in crossing me.

As I sat down on the floor in lotus position I held the bone with my left arm. I connected my soul and energy to the bone, thus initiating the whole process. It is very safe, as long as your body and energy can support it anyone could absorb it easily.

When the spirit bone started fusing with my left arm I felt like it was devouring everything I had, the magic energy, life force, even my soul and spirit were all being devoured. However, at the same time that this happened those forces were being purified and then liberated to my body again. This whole process happened many times and after the 35 times, it abruptly stopped. It did not seem natural at all, it was as if there was something stopping it from completing the final cycle.

After that, the bone was integrated into my body and the excess energy was spread throughout it, reinforcing my flesh and bones and making them even stronger. In especial my left arm that got at least three times stronger than before.

The benefits did not stop there as I could feel that my energy was purified well, and even if I still am in the low high-class I already am just one step away from the mid high-class. Not only that but my energy, perception, and spirit are much purer now making them at least 30% more potent than before.

I could only sigh at this. The absorption of a spirit bone always has this sort of effect on the body, making the user much more powerful than before.

I then started feeling the bone, trying to understand what ability it granted me, and I can honestly say that I am impressed by it. This is a truly tyrannical ability.

"So, what is the skill onii-sama?" This time it was Kuroko that asked. The others were looking at me with the same, if not even more curiosity.

I smiled and said it as there was no need to hide it from them, well first I asked for them to make another new bounded field that blocks sound and vision so as to make sure that others don't know what I am capable of.

"There is only one skill this time, and it is called **Devouring** and as the name suggests it devours. Meaning that I can absorb and assimilate energy from others and attacks. Obviously, any energy that I absorb needs to be refined before I can actually use making me normally only capable of using 10 to 20% of what I take, but the fact that I can forcefully devour any form of energy from my target and turn it usable for myself is still amazing. Close combat against me now will be a BAD idea for anyone that dares." As I explained that the others could not help but show shocked faces.

This skill is OP as fuck. Hard to use but with this, I may finally be capable of using more destructive spells without fear of running out of energy. Now I officially can start an actual new training as I no longer need to fear running out that fast. I have been frozen at the same spot for the last four years, it is more than time for me to step up my game and this bone is exactly what I needed to help me do that.

* * *

 **Writer's note:**

 **I can't talk much since I am working on this chapter through my phone, but I hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **Ideas are appreciated and any doubt or idea you can PM me.**


	51. Chapter 46

Castiel P.O.V.

"Out of the question!" Rin said in an almost yelling tone.

I am now back in the Tower. After all that happened a few days ago I made my way back to the Tower so as to discuss with Rin about what is the best for the Tower when it comes to this proposition of alliance, this amount of wait was just to give time for the Sitri house to decide exactly what it desired. And most important I came here to request something.

A place to train and a new training regime.

My intention is for my house to be expanded by the use of some bounded fields so that it can fit in places that I could train in, I was thinking a gravity room and maybe a place overcharged with curse/dark energy as well as one overcharged with light/blessing energy. Maybe even a room with high thunder energy to see if I can get a few about thunder and lightning elements so that I maybe can start controlling Clarent in a decent way.

However, there is one ' _small_ ' problem. This is going to be expensive. Especially since I will need those rooms to be extra reinforced so as to not be destroyed during practice. Now to convince Rin to pay for, well anything really, is a choir in and of itself. There is even a running joke here that says that it is more likely for Illya to marry Sairaorg than Rin spending money on something 'extravagant'.

So, I did the best thing I could.

I called the one person that will do exactly what I want and make Rin open the purse (for sheer competitiveness).

And she must be arriving in three, two, one and… well, look at that she still is not he-

"Hohoho, is this the poor that is talking?" And with a literal wave of rose petals, Luvia entered the room.

"Who are you calling poor, you rich cow?"

"Oya, I was talking about you. Was human language to advance for a poor flat monkey?"

"Oh no you didn't, you bimbo cow!"

"What did you say, Tohsaka? I cannot understand the words of a low born magus like you."

And that is how in less than 10 seconds the two are now trying to kill one another. I am surprised, it normally takes 6 seconds for this to happen.

Progress.

After a few minutes of this, and the room being completely and utterly destroyed, I decided to ask again.

"…so… about the expansion of my house in Kuoh."

Rin turned to me and said, clear tiredness in her due to how much energy she spent in pluming Luvia on the ground and getting out of the many her-sized holes in the wall.

"I already told you that it is out of the question. This will be far too expensive."

But then the third person in the room decided to intervene.

"What is this story about expanding your house, Castiel? I heard nothing about it."

I scratched my head in 'embarrassment' and said.

"Well, it is like this: I wanted to try and up my training, but as I am now living in Kuoh it is not possible for me to use some of the facilities that I need for proper training. I _could_ try and come here more often, but Rias and Sona are upping security of the town now making teleportation in and out a hassle. Also, even if I did come here I know that the time would be very limited due to the time needed to get here and the fact that what would be left would be partially spent with the girls." I explained to Luvia in hopes for her to do something about it.

If there is one person that can do this is her, especially since she will want to outshine Rin just to spite her. And Rin will likely do a counter proposal just to outdo Luvia, and then Luvia will do the same. Thus the cycle continues until I receive the house and training location I want it and then more.

And all happened exactly as I predicted. It was the exact same trick that I used last time to get my previous house, the original plan was for a basic apartment that had two rooms one bathroom and a barely functional kitchen (obviously it was Rin's idea due to being cheaper), after this trick I managed a huge apartment with many rooms and all furnished.

I now only have to wait for a few days to have a new place to call home, what can I say except that Luvia is efficient.

All hail rivalry! Kampai!

After that was done I went to talk with Caster and Lancer about witchery and runes respectively as they are experts in those fields. I managed to convince them to give me some instructions and received some videos about different applications of those arts and how to use them.

It was a freaking lot of information and to be honest I barely managed to understand 15% right away, but thank to the head spirit bone my memory is much greater than most humans and I could maintain the information in my head so that I can think it over later to try and make sense of it all.

I also caught some books about this so as to study them later, it is good to think about the future and this knowledge may e the difference between life and death.

I would have done the same for magecraft with Rin or Luvia, but the two are in the office trying to murder each other for daring to be in the presence of one another. So my next stop was on Rider's place so that I could see my familiars.

Strangely enough, both the Cosmoems and Jirachi are feeling down, the energy in them is chaotic and they barely react to anything I or the others do. I asked Rider about it and she said that they might be trying to accumulate energy to evolve themselves, as it is similar to how the Cosmogs evolved into the Cosmoems. It is their biology so there is nothing to be done except wait for their recuperation and for them to finish evolving. A fun fact is that one of the Cosmoem likes to stay in the sun for as long as possible while the other likes to stay under the moonlight, and the same can be said about Jirachi as he also tries to spend as much time under the stars as possible.

Seeing as there is nothing else I can do I thanked Rider for taking care of them and then decided to go visit Saber for some training.

After 35 spars and 36 defeats (don't ask me how it is possible, it just is) I can say that I think I should have thought things more thoroughly before asking her for a spar. It is actually funny that I can think better now that I had a wood sword hitting my head over 27 times with enough strength that even rocks would crumble.

After I finished the spars (and got healed by Asia, the girl is a living saint) I went for one last spot that I needed to visit before I went back to Kuoh, the homunculi department that also serves as the alchemy department. I went there so that I could talk with Illya about her passing me some knowledge about alchemy, just enough to see if I can learn something that I can use now that my magical reserves are appropriate. Before I could barely learn anything with her due to the need of having considerable amounts of energy to execute alchemy during combat, and now that I am low high-class I can finally learn from her.

As I asked her about it I managed to convince her to teach me the 'basics' of alchemy from the Einzbern family (which I technically sort of am a part of, kinda), and so I spent the next 5 fucking hours listening to an unending and boring lecture about alchemy. It was so boring that Serenity even dozed off, that she managed to fall asleep at all was something I took pride in the fact that I know that this symbolizes her trust in me to keep her safe and the fact that she is much more relaxed now when compared to before.

At the end of the lecture, I asked for some books about alchemy to see how far I can go with this. Before I left, however, she requested me something.

"Castiel, I need some of your blood." Illya said to me with a serious tone and totally out of the blue. I answered out of sheer instinct.

"Hell no. Why do you even need my blood? For what I know you and Berserker already had plenty of it painter throughout the training fields many times over, go and catch some of it there." I said, not wanting to give my blood to her without an explanation about how it would be used.

Blood is a dangerous thing, especially when it is given instead of taken. It is possible to learn many things by analyzing the blood of someone if they give it out of their own free will, forcibly bounding others with curses or learning racial traits are all in the realm of possibility. There is no way that I am giving blood even if it is for Illya.

Illya then gave her trademark smile that is scarier than most things in this universe and said.

"You can give me a bit now or you can give a lot of it to Berserker." And don't ask me how but the giant mass of doom appeared behind her when she said that and somehow managed to give a smile that looked virtually identical to the one Illya was giving.

The fact that Illya managed to still be the scariest person in the room talks volumes about how scary she is.

Now that I think about it, I know her for so long that I can tell that she will not use my blood for anything nefarious. And the fact that I like my body being whole instead of in pieces also helped my decision.

After giving her a sample of my blood I decided that I needed a good night of sleep before I started my studies. It will take a while for me to assimilate everything I was taught today, but every step forward counts.

* * *

As I got home I was ready for start my studies, I have a fucking lot to think and learn about and for it to be the most effective I need to start now as my memories are still quite fresh. The problem is-

"Hey, why are you here?" I asked trying very hard not to explode at this person that is in my house and is RUINING MY KITCHEN!

Said person tilted her head to the side and said.

"Isn't it obvious that a wife must live with her husband, darling?" was the answer that the invader of MY kitchen said, a smile plastered on her face saying those words as Miku tried to cock something. But the results were less cocking diner and more burning down the kitchen so it is easy to guess why I am NOT pleased.

"Fist, we are not married yet." She pouted at that… cute. "S-second is that this is my kitchen and only those who can cook can mess around in here, and only if I authorize." I had this rule for a long time as it was necessary. All the girls that like me are, for the lack of better words, a walking disaster in the kitchen. I once saw Yuno manage to make a soup become poisonous, it was a soup for Emily when she got a cold while we were all playing in the pool the previous day. I think I saw Yuno muttering something about it just being lumps of fat or something when she saw Emily on a bikini, but I am not sure.

After that incident I decided that none of them can enter a kitchen because, as unbelievable as it may sound, Yuno was still the best one of the girls in the kitchen even after the poisonous soup incident.

So now that I see Miku trying to cook in the only kitchen I have, well my overprotectiveness is explainable.

Miku seemed startled when I said that, and the pout she was giving was even larger now, and when she saw that I was looking straight at her with some degree of rage her lips trembled a bit before-

"BBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You hate me!" She started crying. How much emotionally unstable is this girl? I mean, I barely have shown any displeasure and the one I did was just because of what she was doing and not because of her herself, and still, she cracked and started crying just like that.

Shit. Why are women so damn sensible sometimes?

Oh well, I guess I should go back to the basics that Lancer-sensei taught me so long ago. I approached her and gave her a hug, started patting her back and whispered in her ears.

"It is fine, everything is fine. I just am not that good with anyone else in my kitchen, that is all. It is not like I hate you or anything like that, so please stop crying. Crying doesn't match you, you are the most beautiful when you smile after all." And at the end of that, she stopped crying altogether.

Honestly, Lancer-sensei's teachings are probably the thing that saved my life the most over the years.

After that I looked at what she did, hoping that _maybe_ there was finally someone else around here that could cook anything at fucking all.

My expectations were on point as I saw what she did… she managed to fry an egg so well that it turned charcoal black. The worst part is that this was already better than all other girls here as it at the very least is not poisonous.

Her other dish was curry which looked perfectly fine. However, looks are deceiving, especially considering that she managed to confuse salt and sugar as well as pepper and curry powder, the flavor was just about to make me throw it all up. I ended up eating it all, not because I wanted but because her eyes were so bright and wanting for praise (close to a puppy dog) so I could do nothing but eat it all up and hope that my left leg spirit bone would manage to make sure I did not die.

Good news is that I did not die, the bad news is that my tongue wanted to very much.

After that, I managed to prove my mental fortitude as I did not pass out even though I really wanted to. I even manage to give her a smile, or so I hope because I am pretty sure that the ceiling isn't positioned under my feet.

I then said to her a few words, very practiced as I know that those might be my only line of defense against death.

"You can let me cook for now on, I want to pamper you."

She then hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before walking away. I might have passed out after that because I remember entering home around mid-day and now that I look out of the window it is clearly night.

Sighing I decided to put this situation in the (don't trust the girls in the kitchen) list.

Afterward, I talked with Miku about her situation and she said.

"I decided I will be living here. I even informed the Tower and my parents and the Tower and mom said that it was fine."

Sigh, again my opinion about such matters is ignored. It is a trend as whenever it is about girls I have just as much control as someone in a roller-coaster. A roller-coaster that has Berserker as an enforcer.

… wait a second. I must ask this before anything else.

"And what did your father said?"

She had that damn smile on her face when she was about to talk, so I did what I had to.

HEAD CHOP

"Ouch! Was chopping my head really necessary?" She said while rubbing her head.

I then answered.

"Yes, yes it was. You were doing that bad smile again and I hate it." I said, and she looked to the side without knowing what to say.

This is an ingrained habit of hers, to give that smile whenever she wants to hide her emotions. I do not want her to keep doing it so I will keep head chopping her until she stops doing it for good.

"…So? What did he say?" I asked again. This time she sighed and said.

"He did not approve or disapprove, he simply wrote something in here and said that I should give it to you." She then took out a letter that was hidden in her big valleys, that I am trying 'very hard' not to look. And failing as it is quite enticing.

.

.

.

What? She is my fiancé anyway so a look is not perverted or anything, I am a man after all.

When she gave me the letter I opened it and read it.

' _Dear future dead body,_

 _I will kill you if you look at her, I will kill you twice if you touch her hand or anything and I will eliminate your very existence if you even THINK of kissing my baby girl!_

 _I hope this letter finds you in great health and going strong as I refuse to let anyone that I don't accept or weak anywhere near my treasure._

 _From: a very angry, and willing to kill you, father!'_

You know, suddenly I feel that I should practice some Buddhism techniques of controlling the body and soul so as to not be tempted by earthly desires. Especially when such desires can make one of the strongest martial artists of the whole word and a GOD of the art want to kill me.

Yep, I will start chanting some mantras whenever I start to feel that my life is at stake (unfortunately, it is almost every awake moment of my life)

"Ahh~~~, this is the life."

OR I can go after someone that REALLY needs to learn that there are a time and place for everything, and the time and place for stealing my pudding is never and nowhere.

"LUGH, why are you eating MY limited edition pudding? I was keeping it for later." I said, glaring at Lugh as she was sitting on the couch with the remote control in hands as she watched TV and ate MY PRECIOUS!

She turned to me, then turned to the pudding pot and she decided what to do next. She turned the whole thing in her mouth in one gulp. She even turned to me and said.

"What pudding? I am not seeing anything. Hahahahahahahahaha…" And then she started laughing.

Sigh, I knew accepting her back was a bad choice. I should have kicked her out then and there, but I still considered her kind of a friend and most importantly I do not want her to go look for that spear supremacist bastard.

He is right there with Loki, Hades and Diodora on my shit list.

After that, I went to make dinner or at least tried to. When I looked the whole place was a mess of dirty dishes and if I went to clean them all I know that dinner will not be done tonight at all. I COULD ask Lugh, but last time I asked her answer was 'My only experience in kitchens is to steal food from others' and she said that with a straight face.

I decided to call for pizza, Okuyasu also came in here due to his place having a water infiltration in the walls and he ate with us. The pizza was good and all, but after we all ate I realized our new problem… there were not enough rooms.

This place was thought of to be comfortable for me, Emily and Taiga. Now Taiga went to Vegas out of the blue (typical action of hers s she loves being there for some reason) so there was her room empty for use, but now there is Okuyasu, Serenity, Lugh, and Miku all to sleep here too. In the end, a decision was made about how we would arrange ourselves. All the girls stayed in a room each, while I and Okuyasu stayed on the couch.

Which means-

SSSSSSSSSSSSSNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

That the snoring came back with a vengeance.

FART

And he brought friends.

I NEED a new home soon or I will go fucking crazy here.


	52. chapter 47

Castiel P.O.V.

"Dude, why are you so down today?" Asked the annoying chainsaw interpreter that did not let me sleep at all last night.

I looked at him with a deadpan face, partially due to how stupidly easy the question was, and part because moving my face to make any different face right now is to tiresome.

"You want to know why?" I asked Okuyasu, images of punching this sleep disturbance right in the face coloring my mind.

"W-well, yeah. That is why I asked." He said, a bit afraid of me. He probably is getting used to me if he can detect when I am about to turn violent, or want to turn violent.

I don't like using violence with those I consider friends, it was never quite something I like to do. That is why I said those words next.

"Oh, it is nothing. It is just that I could not sleep last night due to the sound of chainsaw playing a violin coming out of the mouth of a friend of mine that invited himself to my home and decided to sleep there out of the blue. By the way" the amount of cold sweet that appeared on his forehead out of sheer instinct was impressive. "you wouldn't mind sparing with me tonight right? Let's promise not to use sacred gears or Ki for good measure, we don't want anyone that could not sleep well to get hurt, right?"

As I finished talking in an extremely sweat tone Okuyasu turned tail and ran away. How rude, he could at least accept the sparing match later as a man (if he would still have the apparatus of a man afterward is questionable).

After seeing Okuyasu running with his tail between his legs I gave a smile and felt a bit more invigorated when I said to the others that it was time for us to get going. We had to go to school.

It was me, Emily, Miku, Serenity and Lugh. Miku was going because she said she wanted to be as long as possible with her darling (A.K.A. me). Serenity needed to go because she can only stay un-toxic when she is close to me so there was no way around that, luckily she had some degree of previous knowledge due to working as a spy in a school environment before so she knew the basics. Lugh in the other hand…

"I don't want to go! Please don't make me, school is for suckers. The winners can stay at home and watch TV and play games all day." She said while hugging the couch, refusing to move a single step out of it.

I sighed and said.

"Lugh, I hope you understand that school is not a punishment or anything of the sort for you."

"Yeah, so why are you making me go where I don't want to?" She said in defiance.

I then said.

"Because I don't trust you out of my sight. Who knows what you intend to steal or mess with next?"

As she heard my comment she could do nothing but give a sheepish smile while scratching the back or her head. My open glare after managed to shut her up and make her comply.

We were going earlier to school as we needed to talk to Sona about the details about accepting the girls in the school. I would also have to talk about the alliance and mark a proper meeting to solve the situation.

Also, I had to talk with Tsubaki (or at least try to) about what we should do and when we should meet to start discussing magic. After all a contracted devil for a magician is all about exchange of information and studying magic to try and go further in our own fields, and as I am trying my hand in so many different areas right now maybe she could help me.

However, I realized something when we were approaching the school. That the eyes of the teens were ALL turning to us. No kidding here, almost everyone was looking at Miku and turning into a fan mob and the amount of death glares I received from both genders when Miku hugged my right arm to walk was terrifying.

My left arm was being hugged by Serenity as she was absurdly nervous. This was the first time she was showing to so many others her face as I prohibited her to use the skull mask to school. It took a hell lot of work to make her accept my request and I honestly can't say I like it. I mean, being capable of seeing her angelic face was quite rewarding but the fact that some of the boys passing were looking at her with lecherous faces really made me wonder if I could kill some of them without anyone realizing it was me.

Emily was on the back and looked at all of this as if she wanted popcorn to accompany the show. Lugh, on the other hand-

"Hey, hey it is a cosplayer."

"Wha~~, I can't believe that someone dresses like that on the streets."

"Yeah, yeah, she looks like she mixed a geisha with a ninja and then… Odin? Whatever what is important is that she should change."

"Such a shame, if it wasn't for that she would be a babe."

"I agree, if she knew how to dress with the least amount of sense she would be girlfriend material. Now I doubt there is someone out there that would ask her out"

"Not necessarily, there are always otakus out there that had weird fetishes."

"Now that you mention it this might be her aim, righ-"

And that was as far as those talking went before Lugh started liberating a wave of killing intent that promised blood murder.

The crowd dispersed quite quickly thanks to it and I then turned to look at her. She turned back, looked at me and said.

"Not. One. Word."

I did not say anything, no sir I certainly did not.

I simply looked at her, and after a few seconds gave her a mocking smirk and said to the other girls.

"Let's go girls. I need to take you beautiful girls, and a plus one, to go see Sona." The sound of someone seething in anger beside me was just what I needed to get energy for the day.

Even my sleepiness is mostly gone.

After we got in the school we went straight to the student council room as I know that Sona is. I knocked on the door, after I manage to convince Miku to release my hand (I kept Serenity as she was as she needed emotional support right now), and the one to answer the door was Momo Hanakai, one of Sona's bishops.

She was an attractive young girl with long white hair, blue-green eyes and an attractive body. Well, she still was far from the same level of Miku and her loveliness was less than the one from Seryu or Serenity, but she still was a girl that made man take a second and third look.

"Hello, Momo-san. I wanted to discuss some maters with Sona now if it was an opportune time." I said with a smile.

She looked at me with a stern face and said.

"Sorry but Sona-sama is busy now so you wi-"

"Let him in." was what Sona said in the back.

After she heard the order Momo opened the door to let we all in. Sona was sitting behind a big, and clearly beyond what a school can afford, table. At her side is Tsubaki and on the rest of the room is the others of Sona's peerage. Most of them are pretty girls that I don't have much of an impression of, but if there is one exception is Tsubasa as she is extremely outgoing, boyish, quite popular due to how she acts instead of simply her looks and she is a kind person.

I noticed her mostly due to my mystic eyes, I saw that she was the nicest person among all the devils here on Kuoh.

If I had to say someone else that left an impression, it would have to be-

"Why is the damn pretty boy here?" This Issei copy (that likes to pretend to be a gentleman) was called Saji. He is the annoying type that makes me the maddest, I mean we barely entered the room and he already screamed at me and is leering at the girls.

Seeing him staring at the girls I ended up showing my displeasure on my face, which made Sona intervene.

"Saji, that would be enough. You ought to remember that we are trying to enter an alliance with the faction that he represents, and as such he came here to discuss serious matters. Now stand down." She said with authority but not overbearingly so, she also explained to him the probable reason for our visit not only to him but also to the others in the room. All without ever showing weakness or oppressiveness to her peerage.

She really is an exemplar young heir to the house of Sitri. If only the other devil houses had such heirs talking to the houses would be easier, I mean there are some that just make you want to punch them on the face (A.K.A. that green haired fetishist bastard, if he ever gives me a chance I will crush his puny neck after castrating him for good measure. Piece of shit.).

After that was done were requested to sit down on the couch. we were offered tea, which we all accepted.

As I took the first gulp I could not help but say.

"This is delicious. I must ask you who did this excellent job?" I said to Sona. She gave me a smile and pointed to her queen that was completely red.

"It was my queen here. This is one of her talents so to say."

I then said.

"It really is a great talent, brewing a truly delicious tea is not easy after all. I hope to taste more of this in our future meetings, Tsubaki." I said smiling to her. She simply faced me without a simple word, not even a movement of agreement or disagreement.

Does she hate me that much?

Seeing this weird situation Sona decided to intervene.

"Well, now that we are all settled I have to ask, why do you decided to come see me uninvited? And with non-students to add."

I took a more serious persona now as it was necessary for this.

"I come here with a few objectives. First and foremost is asking for the admission of Miku Okami, Serenity and Lugh as students here. I know it is sudden but it would be largely appreciated if you could make it possible."

She looked at me and said.

"That would be difficult. The semester already started and as far as I know none of them were proper students in any other school." She said, clearly not wanting to comply.

I nodded at her and then said.

"I understand that, but this situation is such that if they can't enter here I will probably have to leave this institution and go back to study in the Tower."

I could see that Sona did not want that as it would make any negotiation a bit more difficult as it would be like she expelled me from school (even if it wasn't like that to those looking on the side it would seem like it, and that would not look well for her in the future). Also, if I left together with the Tower members the defense of Kuoh academy would be weakened as I know that we are very strong and our willingness to help the town under their territory was a great deterrent as many that would come to attack the Maou's little sisters would think twice as the Tower might retaliate.

We might not be as strong as the entire devil race, but the fact that we can move much more freely and take action faster was NOT something most wanted to face.

"And why would you have to leave if them do not enter?" Sona asked, clearly confused by my words.

"It is mostly because of Serenity. Her body is special as she continuously produces a poison that is absurdly strong. So much so that it is almost impossible to find anyone that can touch her without dying. Not only that but any and all secretions, such as sweat or saliva, are equally poisonous. The only way that she can ever be around others without fear of causing a mass fatalities is if I am around as my body can suppress said poison perfectly. As such I cannot let her go too far from me and if I go to school while she stays at home the chance of people dying due to it is not one that I can endure." I said.

This let Sona be a bit shocked. She probably did not understand just how dangerous Serenity is and was focused on Miku, she is the type that gets more attention anyway.

"I understand. And how far from you can she go with no problem?" she asked, clear distress on her voice.

I put my fingers on my chin and thought about it. Now that my magic reserves are much more plentiful the size of the **Purity Halo** has grown considerably. Even though **Purity Halo** doesn't spend much energy to maintain, barely any acutaly, it is still connected to the amount and purity of the energy I have. If before I could keep it in a 10-20 meters' radius with no strain, now I can do it up to 100 meters.

"It can be maintained at a distance of 100 meters. In this area there will be no poison that can be activated, so at most she can stay at a 100 meters' radius of me." I said. It may be a bit larger, but it gets riskier if it is further than that as I would need to actively put more energy into it.

Sona nodded her head, understanding the situation.

She then said.

"I understand. If it is like this there is no real choice here as I would not like to see any disaster and more importantly I don't want to see anyone not being capable of entering school due to my decision. We can include them all here, now if you girls can please go to the room on the side to get your measurement for the uniform." Sona said and the girls nodded, even though Serenity clearly did not want to have me out of her sight. She was very attached to me, I could say that it was too much but considering what I represent to her it would make sense.

After the three left with two of Sona's peerage members I was relieved. That was my number one priority as Castiel the person, now for Castiel the heir it is a different story.

"Now, about the alliance between our two factions." I said, getting her attention back as her eyes sharpened with the intention of understanding everything I mean by my actions. She probably saw the accord I had with Rias and realized what it entailed exactly, how bad things can be if she is not attentive as the Gremory will be seeing soon. The lack of Phoenix Tears, the 'humiliation' of having to apologize and the fact that we of the Tower obtained so many of the Gremory clan's resources, none of that is something Sona wants to deal with on her family.

"What is it that you propose?" She asked.

"I want to put a few terms, nothing major I can assure you. First is that we cannot share every research we have with you, it would be impossible anyway as completely sharing it would possibly damage the Tower too much as there are some magics we created that are connected to the defenses of our territory. Instead we can sell you guys mystic codes with a 15% discount and give you and your peerage personal customized mystic codes so as to make them stronger. In exchange we want the Sitri family research in water magic that you proposed previously as well as signing a contract of mutual help in case of necessity." I said, making her give a thoughtful look. It was more than we offered to most, much more actually as our mystic codes are among the very best in the market and, as we can create many different ones thanks to our research on the area, we had the greatest variety of mystic codes there was. I then gave her an additional request. "Oh, I was almost forgetting one other thing. We want your sister to sign a geass saying that she will not try to force any of the Tower members to dress up as Mahou Shoujo and participate on her show."

At that the corner of her lips twitched, clearly understanding the reason of the WHY we were requesting such a thing.

"T-this all seems very reasonable, but I would like some time to think about it." I nodded at that. It was the best option as she needed to think things over to decide the best course of action.

"Of course, I understand. This sort of contract is not one that should be signed and done in a hurry as the one we had with the Gremory clan. If she was not in such a hurry, I think it is possible for her to have requested the exact same thing." I said with nodding this time. "And that takes us to the last part of this discussion, the training."

She nodded, a bit of distress on her face as she knew that she was already getting some of the benefits from being allied to the Tower. Our training was top-notch and considered among the absolute best in the whole word, the only ones that could match us in equal ground is Chiron from the Greek Pantheon, he did foster some of humanity greatest heroes, which is a plus, but he DID train Jason, which is a minus for allowing such being to even breath. I know it is ancient history, but he failed in killing that shit head asshole so it counts as a minus in my books.

"What would you like to discuss about the training?" Sona asked.

I smiled and said.

"To put it simply I would like to make a schedule of training for each of you, also I invite you all to go visit the Tower at the weekends so as to get the best locations and specialized training for each of you. And I also would like to ask if you have any location that can be used for training right now and if I could use it for these next few days." I said, hoping for an affirmation. I NEED to start training as it has been to long since I had the opportunity to actually improve my capacity and it is only now that my energy made a breakthrough that I can do it for real.

Sona thought for a while before saying.

"Yes, that would be acceptable. And we do have a training ground, but as we use it from the moment the classes end until 10 PM you can only use it freely after that. And don't forget that you need to start the magic discussions with Tsubaki as you two are on a contract." Sona said and I obviously nodded. It was no real problem even if I had to wait until they finished their training as it would give me time to finish cooking for the others at home.

After that I am Sona discussed some more and when the girls came out of that room dressed in the uniforms I could not help but gasp at them (excluding Lugh). Serenity and Miku were perfect in those uniforms, Miku looked like a blooming flower that got all the attention in the room simply by being there, while Serenity looked like a flower that flourishes in the night and don't call to much attention, but when you do notice it you cannot stop looking.

I then said how the two of them were beautiful and afterwards we went to class. Sona put the three of them in my class as it would be safer for them to be there as: A) I would make sure NO ONE would mess up or try anything with Miku; B) Serenity needs to be around me as much as possible; C) No one trusts Lugh to NOT steal everyone in whatever class she is if I am not there to stop her, it is to a point that after we left the room I just said to her.

"Give it back." And she pouted while taking out Saji and Momo wallets from her pockets. No kidding, she actually stole the two of them and no one noticed, not even me. I just knew she did because, well, it IS Lugh after all.

The class was, to say it bluntly, a disaster. In the time it took for me to talk with Sona it seems like everyone in this school got the information that Miku Izayoi was entering the school, no one paid attention to class, not even the teachers bothered with it as everyone just kept asking her about everything. If I had to point out one moment of interest it would have been:

"So… do you have a boyfriend?" One girl asked.

My back was rolling in cold sweat at that question. I could only hope she would not tell about me.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend." Miku said, the relieve I felt was quite real, and quite short considering her next few words. "I have a fiancée, my Darling Castiel!" She said hugging me.

The fact that I had to beat up some of the guys that came after me later to 'discuss' my relationship with 'Miku-sama' was just bad. And then I went out of my way to beat up the two pervert friends of Issei for start discussing about Miku and Serenity's body measures and how they might feel and look under their clothes, and discussed it in public in the middle of the corridor.

Strangely enough Issei did not participate at THAT discussion, especially when he saw me approaching and the smile I was giving he ran away quite fast.

At the end of class I was exhausted, but I only got the time to go home and make dinner pretty fast before going to meet up with Sona and her peerage to see about the training. The training area they had was, to be honest, to basic. It was only a large empty space that was reinforced and hidden enough for others not to notice.

I put them in a simulated fight among each other, and I am surprised to see that Sona's peerage is having the exact opposite problem that Rias peerage had.

They had a quite decent control over their powers, but the amount of energy that each of them, excluding Tsubaki and Sona, had was simply too low. To fix that I put them all in a physical training on the Saitama style and asked the help of Eevee in his mode Glaceon, making they train under extreme cold will do some good for their character and body. I even requested Eevee to change to mode Flareon to heat things up every once in a while, and to change to mode Jolteon to help they train evading a hail of electric needless. The fact that at the end of training they were all glaring at me with righteous hate and fear did not bother me at all.

Meanwhile I took Sona and Tsubaki to another point of the training area to discuss about magic and the applications of it. I may not come even close to the feet of someone like Rin, Luvia or specially Caster, but my knowledge in the area was larger than the two of the, especially considering that they are limited in only knowing water related spells. I decide to discuss more about how to use different types of magic and gave a basic course on runes and witchcraft.

I did not expand on things that are considered secrets of the Tower, but I did make a thoroughly explanation of the rest. The reason being that explaining such things can help me understand a bit more of what Caste and Lancer explained to me. Absorbing and understanding all that is hard, but this way actually helps me with some parts I was in doubt with. Ideas and theories were popping into my head the more I explained to them this stuff.

After that Sona and her peerage ended up remaining there until it was close to 11PM, and after they left I started my own training routine. There were so many ideas to try out, so much to test that I probably will not completely go through it all today, but the feeling of growing actually stronger is intoxicating after all this time in stagnation.

It is so good to actually train and grow stronger again, it has been more than one year since the last time I felt myself growing any stronger.


	53. Chapter 48

Castiel P.O.V.

"Castiel-sama, it is time to wake up." I heard a sweet voice saying very quietly. I then opened my eyes and saw Serenity's face looking at me. Is it this late already, I don't even remember when I went to sleep last night. "The Sitri's peerage is almost here."

At THAT I jumped in a startled fashion. Sona and her peerage are coming here? But this is my ho… forget that, I am still in the bunker/training area of Sona.

"What time is it?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"It is close to 7 PM, you went to sleep just three hours ago." Was what she said.

Did I really got so lost in my training that I did not even realize the time? Really? Wow, this has not happened since when I reached the mid-class when I was 10 (a few weeks before I met Seryu and understood how weak I was and am).

After that, I decided to prepare myself for all the nonsense that Sona is going to give me. Knowing her she will be overly pissed by the fact that I missed school, again, and this time without a good explanation. Oh well, I will only say the truth to her and hope for it to be enough.

I doubt it will.

I went home and in the way could not help but ask Serenity.

"Since when were you there, I did not even notice you?"

"I was there since the start. I hide myself using **presence concealment** , an skill that I absorbed after the fusion between me and Hassan of Serenity was completed. I am not capable of reaching her level yet, but I am working on it." She said, and I must say that it is impressive.

 **Presence concealment** is a skill that every assassin-class heroic spirit has, and it allows for an assassin to hide in plain sight. It makes it so that it is virtually impossible for someone to detect you when you activate said skill, but killing intent is still possible for others to feel so it is better suited for sneak attacks and spying… or so was what the teachers back in the Tower taught me.

As heroic spirits, they have a set of skills that all of them have by simply existing and one such skill is this one, the only one that has it is Assassin-sensei and he always made it appoint for me to understand how dangerous it is.

If Serenity can use such skill now it means one thing above all else… I am so RELIEVED that she is my ally. I mean, having a fighter such as her is great but having a fighter such as her as an enemy NOW that she knows presence concealment is simply horrifying. I feel bad for the next bastard she wants to kill, and I am honestly tempted to send her to 'go see' one such being (green hair, narcissistic pervert piece of shit that I want to kill one of this days, he likes to Sully holyH maidens for sport, the classic devil bastard).

Anyway, I decided to ask her further.

"And about this fusion, are you sure you are feeling alright? There isn't anything painful, nothing to worry about, is there anything I can do to help?" I asked a bit distressed. Anything related to the soul is dangerous to an abnormal degree and if there was something like that happening to me I would be terrified and I cannot help but feel the same for her.

She looked at me and a healthy tint of pink colored her cheeks when she said.

"N-no need to worry. I am doing just fine here, seriously no need to worry yourself."

As she said that I calmed myself. If she truly felt fine then ok, but at the first sign of anything going amiss I will take her to the Tower and not let her get out until she is healthier than me!

After that we walked in silence, just enjoying the moment. That is only until we got home and were bombarded by a thousand questions non-stop by Miku as Emily and Lugh already imagined why I did not appear earlier and Okuyasu was used to this sort of thing from his own training as well.

Apparently Miku was feeling down because I was not there, which caused a bunch of students to react to try and make something to make her happy, which caused problems throughout the school, which caused Sona to call in Miku and Lugh (which was selling compromising pictures of the other girls in exchange for money, no overly compromising poses but enough for her getting quite a hefty sum and becoming an idol for the perverted trio).

At the end of the day, there was barely any actual studying throughout the school and Sona was pissed at me. I-I think I will not go to the training area of theirs today, if I leave things to calm down it will probably be better for everyone.

I just hope I don't piss Sona off even more right no… shit! I forgot to fix her training area. I don't remember how I left there, as when I woke up I was close to the exit door and I just stood up and left and was so focused on practicing and testing my theories that I did not really see what happened around myself.

Will it be a problem? Meeh~~, it will probably be fine. How much damage could I have even caused anyway?

* * *

Sona P.O.V.

This day has been awful! Just a bit more and the school would have gone down in an inglorious fie, all due to some student trying to make something ridiculous, not that there wasn't an explosion or two so I suspect some of the students wanted to burn down the school. Apparently, the students in chemistry class were not paying attention to what they were doing due to their talk about 'how to make Miku-sama happy again!'.

Bunch of morons that don't think about the problems they will create.

At least now I have somewhere to release some of this pent up rage and discomfort I felt throughout the day.

As I opened the doors to the training area I already have some ideas that I need to test about how to combine some of those runes with my water elemental magic. The effects are very promising and if everything goes well I and my peerage will have a much better debut in the youth gathering in one month.

However, such thoughts were completely ignored after I saw the state that my training area is now. There are dozens of holes, many scorches and frozen areas, a huge three right in the middle, and some areas that are full of gashes that could come from claws or swords.

In the name of Satan and all that is evil, how the hell did things turn out like this!? What happened here? Who could do such a thi… CASTIEL!

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

Yep, definitely no problems at all.

After I managed to calm Miku down I went to make dinner, and have my first meal of the day. As I was cleaning the dishes before start cooking (because everyone refused to clean A SINGLE PLATE) I decided to talk to Miku due to being the only one around. Emily and Lugh are watching a movie, Serenity went to take a nap (she did not sleep at all so as to guard me) and Okuyasu is taking a walk outside so as stretch his limbs.

As I was talking with Miku she asked a question.

"How was your life when you were younger?"

I stopped to think a bit and then I started talking.

"It was a complete and utter mess. There were so many things that I needed to know and understand, from fighting bare-hand, to different forms of magecraft, survival, miscellaneous items and their uses, monsters anatomy in case I had to fight them in the future, and also learn about politics and etiquette. I had to visit all sorts of places and meet with many people, some were good while others were terrible to even be around. But if I was to put the one thing that has always been nagging at me since I was little, it would be my mom." I said, the last part leaving my mouth without me even noticing.

"Now that you mention it, who is your mom?" Miku asked as she is probably curious in knowing who is her 'mother-in-law'. Well, she will be disappointed.

"Never met her. As soon as I was born she left and never bothered in communicating with me again. I don't even know who she is as no one wanted to tell me, which is probably for the best since I might have done something like look for her and if she rejected me back then I would be devastated." I said shrugging my shoulders.

Miku stared at me with a shocked expression, but after a while, she calmed down and asked.

"Do you feel lonely?"

I looked at her as if she was an idiot for even asking.

"No, no I don't. I admit that when I was little whenever I saw Yuno or Emily with their mothers I would feel sad, even envious, but I had long since ended that. I had others that looked after me and cared for me, who cares if my own mother did not bother with me if I had someone else that did. It is her loss, as I will make the Tower so big, so strong that even her will have to look up to me and regret that she turned her back to me." I said my innermost desire, no, not a desire. The ultimatum I made for myself years ago.

Seeing Miku distressed face I could not help but say to her.

"Sorry, it seems like I was to direct with you. It is just that, this is very personal for me and I rarely ever say this to anyone. I myself don't know why I decided to tell you this, but you don't have to worry. I will take care of this myself so as to not let you or the others to get hurt because of my decision." I said with what I believe to be a reassuring smile.

And I will do it. No matter how hard it will be.

And the next step is who is showing up right now from the Gremory teleportation symbol.

From it came out Rias (who was clearly distraught and with many bags under her eyes) and Grayfia. Well, I can't really expect Syrzechs as it would put the Japanese Pantheon on high alert if a high Leader-class came, it would be an overall bad idea to say the least.

"Emiya-sama, it is good to see you in good health." Grayfia said giving an elegant bow that was mimicked by Rias.

"And it is good to see you both in good health as well, but even though you must have come for serious issues would you two give me enough time for getting changed and ready." I pointed to the sink that was clearly being used right now. "I was just finishing to clean the dishes to make dinner, but that can wait for some time." I said so as to explain my attire. I mean, I am all wet and there is soap still on my hands so I am clearly in no conditions to start this talks about the alliance.

Grayfia nodded her head, and Rias did to even if much more rigid in comparison.

I then went to my room to get changed. I put a formal clothing since my combat clothes are still under repair (that fight with **Magma Dragoon** really put my uniform on bad conditions/fully trashed). Following that I looked myself in the mirror so as to use some of those Buddhist mantras to better focus my mind, it may seem like a joke but the Tower does have some connections with a few Buddhas and they did share these mantras that helped to calm and clean the mind.

For other factions and groups, such mantras would be seen as secrets to not be shared, but the Buddhas are really great guys, honest, simple and love to share their teachings of peace and love… as long as you do not overly provoke them. When they turn into Asuras, well there IS a reason why such peace-loving group is considered one of the groups that no one dares to go against.

As I finished reciting one of those mantras my mind was clean and peaceful again, I no longer was with the talk I had with Miku about… THAT in the back of my head. I need to be better, to make this alliance work and to make absolutely sure that the Tower get the biggest amount of benefits out of it.

After that was done I went to see our guests. The two were sitting on the couch and Rias was doing some small talk with Lugh, Emily, and Miku while Grayfia was doing her best imitation of a statue (and quite a good imitation at that), but as soon as I entered the room things took a more solemn turn. Now was the time to finish the talks and conclude the procedures of the alliance, the Tower did give its part of the deal and now it is time for the Gremory clan to give theirs.

And so they did, quite easily in fact. No need to haggle as I thought would happen, they just did as they had agreed previously without any complaints. They even marked a day to the members that offended the Tower to make a public apology. It is amazing, I thought it would be so much more difficult but with this, I can be relieved that the Tower will get stronger.

As the political discussions and agreements came to an end Rias, that was mostly quiet throughout all of this, blurted out.

"Please help me." She said bowing her head.

.

.

.

.

What is happening? What did the fuck happen to make Rias so desperate as to blurt out this words right after the alliance was validated?

"What is it that you need?" I asked, 70% worried about whatever happened and 30% curious about what is the problem.

Rias looked at me with her eyes turning slightly red.

"It is about Gasper. He has not woken up since the day of the match. No matter what we do he continues unconscious and all he does is a grunt of pain from time to time, but even that is getting spaced out more and more." She said in an almost crying voice.

Hearing that I also got worried. If this keeps up who knows what is going to happen to him.

"Do you know anything about what is happening exactly?" I asked. The others barely even know the little guy so it is mostly me that is worried.

"All we could identify is that it is something pertaining his soul. The reason for this to happen and what exactly is happening is beyond what we can understand. Even though we as devils do know quite a lot about souls we are more focused on turning souls and there are even some that know how to damage them we, in the end, know next to nothing about healing a soul, but the Tower is different! You guys have experts in all areas of the study of the soul so if there is any place that can help my precious Gasper is you guys. Please. Pleas-" She was about to go on her knees from how desperate she was, however, I stopped her.

"There is no reason for so much pleading. We are allies now so it is natural to help one another." As I said that Rias face expressed so much relieved that it was painful just to watch.

Afterward, I went together with Rias and Emily to Rias place so as to go see Gasper (Grayfia returned to the underworld as she was here just for the necessary procedures and could not stay here much longer in fear of provoking the Japanese Pantheon).

Normally Gasper should be on a proper clinic in the underworld while receiving the best treatment, however, since Rias talk about making her own decisions for herself Syrzechs considered better to keep her and her peerage in the human world as much as devilish possible.

As we entered the room we were called to the room where the patient was. Gasper was in bad condition. He was sweating a lot and his face was in a grimace that would just not leave his face. I approached him and did some structural grasping to see how his condition was going, and it was truly bad. It was like his soul was divided into two sides and instead of fusing one was fighting the other. I also noticed that while one soul had much greater vitality the soul itself is quite weak, meanwhile the other soul barely had any life force but the strength of that soul was many times greater.

If this continues this way for much longer he may create some permanent damage to his soul that in turn would not only stop him from ever growing stronger it would also be possible for him to never wake up.

"There is no time to lose! Let's transport him right away." As I said that I started drawing a magic circle on the floor. The objective of it is not for teleportation directly to the Tower, the seals put around the town would block that, but it serves to something else just as good.

This magic circle is a signal, one to make the identification of the exact coordinates much easier. I then took out my phone and dialed for someone that could help us right now.

"Onii-sama, I missed you." A happy voice said on the other side of the line. I had to contain a slight smile that threatened to appear on my face, she is just so herself at all times that it makes her cute to me… even if her clinginess could see some work.

"Kuroko, I just draw a location identification circle here in Kuoh. I need you here as soon as possible." I did not even hear a response just the sound of… something, there is no good way to describe this sound except for the fact that there is something.

And in under three minutes, she was already here, hugging me. Normally I would react in a disciplinary fashion, God knows her father indulges her and her mother is normally too busy to discipline her in modesty or good sense, but considering how fast she came here all just because I asked I could not help but smile at her. She did not even need to know my reason for asking, she just needed to be asked and she dropped everything for me.

She is also very pure; in her own particular way, she is extremely innocent.

She then started rubbing herself at me and her hand approached certain regions that she should not approach until we are in a proper relationship AND she is older. My eyebrow started twitching when I saw that.

You know, she might be pure. I will give her that. But of innocent she has nothing. At. ALL.

As I stopped her movements in trying to feel me up I hide my slight amusement to her antics and took a more serious face.

"Kuroko, I need you to teleport Gasper and us to the Tower as quickly as possible."

Kuroko looked at me and all the mischief and pervertness evaporated from her face. Replacing that was a serious and focused eye as she nodded and started drawing an extremely complex magic pattern that would combine with the powers of her sacred gear so as to let her teleport from here to the Tower.

Normally such thing is close to impossible due to the bounded fields surrounding the Tower and Kuoh, but Kuroko's sacred gear is just that useful. The only reason why she even needs this magical circle is to better locate the spatial coordinates and to help energize her sacred gear, otherwise, she simply isn't capable of moving more people at this distance all at once as she doesn't have enough energy reserves.

As she was finishing this I went to the side of Gasper and started using some blessings on him. Nothing too powerful as I don't know what effects it would have, just some to pacify the soul inside him. I could not chant the Buddhists mantras as they need to be chanted by the person himself. If he was awake and could chant this it would probably help him.

When the blessing ( **Calm Mind, Clean Spirit** ) was put in Gasper it was clear to see that his condition got much better. Rias relieve when seeing Gasper's face no longer on a pained grimace was clear to see. She probably saw this as hope for the best.

A few minutes later Kuroko completed the circle and started focusing on the teleportation while me, Rias, Emily (that was talking with Rias and calming her down), and Gasper (that I put on my arms as I am constantly putting blessing power on him) entered the circle. Instants later the space around us was distorted and right after we were all on the Tower.

We rushed to go see Illya as she is among the very best in treating souls (she was the head of the Sister's project of creating artificial interlinked souls after all). Getting on the homunculi department we saw Illya doing what anyone could expect when on a Thursday night, watching anime with a bucket of popcorn. Normally I would not dare to interrupt her (I know how she reacts when someone does that, and I am not interested in being beaten up by Berserker), but desperate times call for desperate actions.

"Illya-Onee-sama, please help us!" And that was all I needed to make her leave the anime and run toward me with sparkling eyes.

She LOVES to be called Onee-sama, and whenever I need something from her I call her that. But it only works when it is not training time so there is that.

Now, all we need to do is let Illya look after Gasper to see what is going on exactly. If there is someone that can help him is her.


	54. chapter 49

Castiel P.O.V.

It has been three days since the day I took Gasper to the Tower. Illya put him into intensive care and used many precious herbs and items to stabilize him, and now he is recuperating.

According to Illya he is going through the same thing that Serenity is, but instead of fusing normally the two souls entered in discord due to the heroic spirit soul receiving vitality from that weak blast of senjutsu's life energy, the heroic spirit's spirit responded to the fusion by attacking Gasper's original soul in hopes to take over the body. Thanks to the treatment Illya managed to remove the life energy present in the heroic spirit's spirit and now Gasper is back to his prior condition of trying to fuse. The problem is that now the heroic spirit soul is a bit incomplete sohe never will reach full fusion like Serenity has.

It is expected that he will take at least 5 more days to awaken and a few more to recuperate back to his normal state.

Knowing that everything will be fine Rias was extremely relieved, even shred a few tears right then and there. Afterward, the rest of the peerage was informed and they all came to my place the next day to thank me and the Tower for the help, unnecessary as it may be. We are allies, helping and respecting one another is part of the deal, and now that Rias and her peerage are finally starting to actually look the part I can respect them for more than just the title.

On the other days, I was banned from entering Sona's training ground alone and had to apologize repeatedly to her for the damage I left there. I even had to request for the group working on my future house to go there and fix things, making the date of inauguration of my new house to take two more days.

One more day that I had to listen to Okuyasu snoring like he wanted to practice breaking the windows with an annoying sound.

And if that wasn't enough Rin called to nag me about the costs of the repair of Sona's training ground, saying that it will be deduced from my expenses, and to inform me that my place will be a base of operations for the Tower so Okuyasu and any other member that comes here will be living there.

And the expenses for food will come out of my pocket because 'why the fuck not?'.

At least these last three days have not been completely bad. I was still called to Sona's training area, mostly to help to teach Sona and her two bishops about the different uses and applications of magic. After it was time for the others to leave I would spend around two to three hours with Tsubaki training myself and helping her with whatever she needed. I discovered that she was not good with long-range attacks, she could use them but it was not natural or comfortable for her. Instead, she was quite good with reinforcement magecraft and runes with similar effect, adding to that the powers of the queen piece and you got someone that could take quite the beating and stand up as if it was nothing.

And it did happen quite a lot when we practiced with weapons, I used a normal blunt sword that they provided me while she used her spear. She knew her way with the weapon, but it was clear to see that despite her talent on the art she was still too reliant on instinct as she did not have someone to teach her properly. I could have asked help from Lancer-sensei, but considering how pretty Tsubaki is I fear for some misunderstandings to happen that would endanger Kuroko's chance of having a new sibling (it would not be the first time that such misunderstanding happened and Bazet almost ripped his jewels off before the misunderstanding was solved last time).

As I was thinking that I continued to practice with her and during the weekend I also tried to connect more with Gandiva, not that I could practice using its true power as it would DEFINITELY destroy Sona's training ground but I did try to connect my mind more to it and practiced some technique of archery that I heard long ago but was too weak to practice before.

The technique is based on the legendary archer Houyi, and it has very extringent requirements for physical strength, mind, soul, and perception to even begin to practice.

Now that I went to low high-class and also thanks to my new spirit bone that improved my body, soul, and mind enormously, I finally can start practicing it. This technique is centered on using my own soul and mind to help guide and direct the arrow while my body shoots it using all the physical strength I can possibly muster. It can be said that it helps to unite my soul, mind, and body in each shot I make, thus increasing the range and accuracy of all my arrows.

It is said that if anyone can reach the utmost limit of this skill it will be possible to pierce one wing of a fly in dozens of kilometers without killing it, and the arrow going forward to pierce some mountain kilometers ahead as if it was nothing. Of course, the only one to reach such levels is Houyi himself and I am not stupid enough to think I can do it too, however, the fact that this helps to make my archery much more formidable is not something to complain about.

Now it is Sunday night and I am back on my home, just enjoying this few hours before going to sleep when I saw Emily passing me. She was covered in sweat and clearly very tired.

Why is she like that? I mean, there is no place for her to train further and there is no possible way for her to be doing any sort of chores, I can tell since it is her and the place is not on fire.

"Emily, is everything alright?" I asked her.

She looked at me with that tired face and made a pained smile.

"Yeah, everything is going great."

I don't believe it for a single second. If everything was going great so why is she so tired?

"What were you doing? And don't give me the 'nothing' bullshit as it is clear that whatever you did it was not 'nothing'." I said seriously.

She looked at me and deflated a bit.

"I was trying to activate my magic core, but it is a slow process." She said, and I finally could understand why she was so tired.

When the Christian God created the angels he made all of them with magical cores, a biological manifestation that produces a nigh-infinite amount of magical energy (the purity and output are still decided depending on what class you are). For what I heard it is an inherited characteristic, just as the absurdly high amount of magical circuits that any descendant of an angel has, especially when it comes from one of the original archangels as they had the greatest amount out there.

That is the reason why Emily has an extremely high amount of circuits of great quality, but as her magical core is not active yet her magical reserves are limited. The best way to open said core is for her to stimulate it using her own normal magic reserves, but it seems like it might take some more time as this is the first time I heard of her even trying to do such a thing.

It is probably so that she can beat up Vali as she felt bad because of what he said last time they met… or just to kick her father even harder on the balls. Who knows?

"This is great news! I am happy for you finally decided to take this next step, but it also makes me sad as you probably will surpass me when you do it." And it is true. The difference between someone that has an active magical core and someone that doesn't it massive, to say the absolute least.

And even though I might be stronger now it is not like I am that ahead of her and when she opens her magical core I will be left in the dust.

"Yep, you will have to call me Emily-sama and ask for my help when you are in trouble." She said sticking up her chest with pride.

I could not help but chuckle a bit and say.

"Don't worry about that, I already trust you with my life anyway so no matter if you are stronger or weaker to me." Her eyes widened hearing that, and she got a healthy tingle of pink on her cheeks. "But I will not call someone that cooks so badly that can even burn water with sama." I said with a Cheshire smirk on my face.

And that healthy pink was replaced with the pure red of rage from my words, and maybe from me reminding her of one of her shortcomings.

"I will kill you." She said while pouncing at me, light spear at hand and all. Good thing is that she was dead tired, the bad thing is that I was just as tired as her so I ended up with some scorch marks from where the spear went to close to myself.

At least this did not last long as the two of us were so dead tired that not even three minutes doing this we were already panting on the ground without any wish to move a muscle.

After that I simply went to sleep right there on the ground, too tired to move and all. At least I hope nothing is going to happen next.

* * *

3 hours later

"Guys, there is some trouble here!" I heard Okuyasu's voice too loud and too clear for my sleeping senses. Is it that hard to get one good night of sleep in here?

I stood up, clear bags under my eyes and with a patience that is so short that even a barrel of TNT on a fire has more.

I wanted to sleep. I even did it on the ground. and not even three hours later there already is trouble around here. What the fuck, is the world determined to not let me sleep even a bit.

Sigh, no point in complaining now. I will just beat Okuyasu to a bloody pulp if the reason is not good enough, and put him into survival training if it is. I am petty.

I then proceeded in turning up the AC and to put a blanket over Emily. She snuggled on it with a happy and relaxed smile as I did that. Seeing this made me calm down some more, but far from enough for me not to beat Okuyasu up. He still disturbed my sleep.

As I proceeded to the living room I realized why Okuyasu was doing all that noise. A dude no more than 16 was laying down on the couch, clear signs of a struggle and even though his injuries were recovered it was still plain to see that he was still in great pain.

Seeing this I walked forward to see what is going on in this dude's body, as normally after being treated by Okuyasu's sacred gear (that he obviously was) he should be fully recovered and healed. Instead, he is in clear agonizing pain.

Not waiting to ask who this guy was, or bothering to ask Okuyasu about what was happening, I went straight to work. First I did a structural grasping to understand his body in details, I need to know what was doing this damage.

Surprisingly I saw that the problem was that inside his body there was some light energy of considerable purity wreaking havoc inside his body. It clearly was not his own as well, because I could feel that he also carried some light energy but it was clearly different than the one damaging his body. It is likely that if it wasn't for Okuyasu healing him he would already be dead.

Seeing this situation, I realized that there were not that many options. I could leave Okuyasu healing him as with time the energy would be spent, and this was the easier and deadliest method as who knows if his mind can take the cycle of destruction and reconstruction.

The other option I can think of is taking him to the Tower to get proper treatment. I believe Caster-sensei is capable of removing this malicious energy in two seconds flat while not even paying attention, but this method also has its demerits. If this guy has any sort of malicious intentions towards the Tower he could endanger someone there, and I will never allow for them to get hurt under my watch.

I guess it will have to be the first option.

' _Use me._ '

I heard in my head.

Who was that? Who talked on my head just now? Is it an enemy, an ally, I need to get ready to kill whoever did this if it is an enemy.

I suddenly felt a tingle on my left arm and I comprehended what happened, which also opened a whole new amount of questions. Apparently, the one that said for me to use it is my new spirit bone. I never heard any of my others communicating with me in any shape or form, but this one is much stronger than the other two so maybe there is still some soul fragment in there.

Scary thought. The world-devouring wolf is beyond simply dangerous, he is someone that literally devoured two inhabited worlds whole and was going to devour another one when Zelretch decided to hunt it down, and even then the wolf devoured half of a third world by then. If such creature is still alive in any form inside the spirit bone I better take care for it not to kill me instead of being of use.

But it begs the question, how do I even use the bone to threat this guy?

.

.

.

.

I am an idiot. How could I not have thought of that earlier, if the ability of this spirit bone is to devour I just need to use it to devour the foreign energy on this guy's body.

As I released the spirit bone, before I even touched the boy I started feeling it devouring in great speed the energy naturally on the air to replenish my own reserves. It was nothing massive enough to cause discomfort to those around me, but it did make me realize that I must use some time to practice with this spirit bone as well. Knowing exactly what you can do is important.

I then put my left arm on his abdomen, as it was there that I felt the foreign energy at. The process was very fast, barely taking a few seconds and as soon as I finished extracting the foreign energy I removed the arm. Who knows what would happen if I left it active for longer while touching him?

The dude's condition got visibly better. He no longer was squirming in pain on the couch and was now peacefully sleeping. He will probably wake up tomorrow morning as he needs to rest properly to recover from all mental exhaustion that came from the destruction and healing process he went through.

Now that everything was better I turned to the person that brought this exorcist (quite likely considering his holy energy and being human) into my house.

"Okuyasu, what the hell happened?" I asked with a stern face.

He completely ignored what I said to ask.

"Is this dude going to be alright?"

I raised one eyebrow and had to fight back my urge to smile at him. He truly was a good guy inside, always wanting to heal and help others.

"Yeah, the treatment was successful. He is just sleeping now and will probably wake up normally by tomorrow evening."

"*sigh* That is good. I was worried when I tried to heal him and he did not recover, thinking that someone would die due to me doing some shitty work was not okay." Okuyasu said.

"Again, what happened?" I asked again, trying to get back on track.

Okuyasu looked at me and visibly got more serious when he decided to explain what happened.

"Well, it is sort of complicated. It was like this, I was walking on the streets not bothering anyone but some punks that tried to steal some kid, I beat them up of course, and suddenly I felt something wash over me. It felt somewhat similar to one of those magic fields you use sometimes so I got curious and went looking. It took me less than a minute to get to the battle as the two fighters were not quiet at all, but before I could do anything this guy here" he pointed to the dude sleeping on my couch. "was thrown to the ground, bleeding quite a freaking lot. Before I even went to help the one that was fighting him flew away, not even bothering to finish the job or seeing if he is really dead."

Interesting, and troublesome.

If there is someone that uses holy energy in town it may be dangerous for the Rias, Sona and their peerages. I need to confirm something first.

"What exactly was that he was fighting?" I asked.

Okuyasu looked really serious when he said the answer.

"It was a high-class fallen angel."

Well, shit. This is going to be a nightmare to deal with. Not only is someone that is probably an exorcist in my house there is also a fallen angel around town. Not only that but who knows if there is only these two or if there are a lot more. And why the fuck they decided to mess with this town that is under the protection of the devils, the Japanese Pantheon (more for being in Japan than anything else), and the Tower?

I took a deep breath, calming down as I can't really go to investigate what the fuck is happening as who knows if I can handle (or should handle) this on my own.

After that, I talked some more with Okuyasu, who was surprised by the others still being asleep, what a poor fool, he still thinks that these girls will wake up from their 'beauty sleep' that easily. They can sleep through your snoring for fuck's sake.

Following that, we went to sleep, or at least that is what I wanted. It was only at that moment that I realized that my bed/couch was being occupied. I could go back to sleep on the ground, but I am not so tired to do such a thing.

Now, what do I do?

.

.

.

Oh, I got a good idea. I can take an advantage of one of my newest connections. I just hope she won't mind.

* * *

KNOCK

KNOCK

"This is better be good, do you know what time i-"

"Sorry for crashing here so late, Tsubaki-chan."

Yep, I went to sleep at Tsubaki's house. It was not far from mine and the lack of space on my own was really bothering me. Also, she is my contracted devil so I think she won't mind. Probably. Maybe. There is some possibility. I can only hope.

Her face was frozen on the very position than when she was talking.

"Again, I am sorry to appear like this out of nowhere, but can I sleep with you tonight?" I asked while smiling, hoping that she would not mind.

Her mouth that was opened slowly closed, following that two streams of blood started flowing from her nose. I stepped forward to hold her when she was about to collapse as she seemed to have lost all power on her legs.

Strangely enough, she was still awake until the moment that I held her on my arms, and after she was secured in my arms she fully passed out cold.

Is she sick somewhat? And why is she with a strange smile on her face that I sometimes see on Yuno or Seryu?

Weird.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **This chapter will be Properly eddited and the orthographic mistakes fixed somewhat later next week. Right now I can only work on my cellphone and this isn't helping me much.**

 **Also, please check out my new story 'The Barbatus King'. It is a bit different and I will try to avoid bashing as much as possible**


	55. Chapter 50

Castiel P.O.V.

Ah, morning. Why do you arrive so early whenever someone wants to stay in bed for some more time?

In the end, I sleep in the same room as Tsubaki as her house was very simple. There were only one room, one bathroom, and a kitchen. It was basic and practical for someone living alone.

As I got up from the futon (lucky me that there was an extra one in here) I noticed that Tsubaki was not on her bed (I put her there yesterday after she had passed out). Wondering if she had already left I went out of the room and saw her cooking.

Her serious face was not stern and the way that she fixed her hair and the apron she was wearing was quite the beautiful visage. It reminded me of the pictures and videos I saw of how a wife did breakfast. Back in the Tower, it was quite a rare sight as most meals are made by a team of Sisters and the rare times' others do it most often than not end up in disaster.

And now that I take a good look I realized that not only is she looking good like that the smell of the food she is making is also quite wonderful. But I will not let myself be cheated, I saw more than once wonderful looking and great smelly dishes that in the end tasted like a chemical residue of one of Caster's experiments.

Tsubaki looked at me and gave a thin smile and said.

"You can sit down; breakfast will be ready soon. I hope you like it."

As I set down I decided to observe her cooking. She knew her stuff, that is for sure. She moved all around the kitchen non-stop but none of her movements seemed forced. It was all naturally born from experience, something I appreciate.

After no more than 3 minutes she finished making the breakfast we started eating in silence, enjoying the atmosphere. It was nothing that special, bread, eggs, coffee, and some cookies that she finished baking just now, but despite the simplicity the food was delicious

"It is all delicious, Tsubaki-chan. I am sure that whoever marries you will be a happy man if you are this good as a cook." I said sincerely.

Strange, why is she getting all red up until her ears? And her eyes are a bit feverish. Is it possible?

Oh God, it is. I am making a sick girl cook for me.

No, I cannot allow her to keep doing all this to me and even go to school after if she is feeling bad. She passed out cold yesterday and is clearly forcing herself, I should try to help her.

"Is everything alright? Tsubaki you should lay down; I will take care of you." I said, imagining what sort of blessing I should use on her and imagined what sort of problem she might be having.

Strangely enough, as soon as I said that her eye bulged and she started trembling with a weird smile. Soon enough her nose started bleeding again and she passed out cold just like yesterday, but stronger.

I instantly appeared beside her downed body and used a blessing of good health. It is not that powerful of a blessing, but it alleviates the pain somewhat and even makes the person feel some amount of pleasure, like taking a warm bath on a cold day. After that, I started doing some structural grasping to see if there was a problem, and strangely enough, I could not see any.

Following that, I took her again to her bed and called the one person that could help me with this.

"Who is it, and it is better to be good." A female voice said on the other side of the line.

"Hello, Sona-Kaichou. I need your help." I said. Instantly after her tone of voice got much sterner as she asked.

"What is going on? Is there any danger on town?" She asked. She was a bit jumpy, strangely enough, but it makes sense. I normally would never call her and utter this words and if I did she probably would be worried that something like Iscariots might be involved. Since I talked to her and Rias about that organization the two have been quite worried, which explains why they raised the town's security considerably and are training so much in comparison to before.

"Well, it is about Tsubaki."  
"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY QUEEN?!" Sona almost screamed at the phone. She might be more cool-headed than Rias but she already is quite a bit stressed so imagining that Tsubaki might be in a bad condition is terrifying to her.

"It is like this; I came here at her house late last night-"

"Wait, you are at her house? Why are you in her house?" Sona interrupted me.

"I ended up coming here as my house was too full and there was no place for me to sleep so I decided that I might capitalize on the contract and sleep here tonight."

An exasperate and quite a loud sigh escaped Sona's mouth. She then said.

"Go on."

"As I was saying, I came here at her place but as soon as I asked her if she would mind me sleeping here with her she passed out. She even got two thin streams of blood escaping her nose." I said.

This time an annoyed grunt escaped Sona's mouth. She must be pissed at someone for doing something stupid, I heard she did that exact same noise more than once when she caught Saji lazing around when he was supposed to be training.

I decided that I should just finish the story.

"I then took her to her bed and let her lay there to rest as she must have been quite tired if she passed out just like that." Another grunt. "I sleep on an extra futon and when it was the morning I woke up to her making breakfast. We ate and I complimented her, and as soon as I did that she passed out cold again. Maybe she is sick or something." I said.

There was no response for some time and after a while, Sona asked me with a completely even tone.

"What did you say to her exactly?"

Strange, I don't think what I said was anything much. Oh well, let's just answer her.

"I said: 'It is all delicious, Tsubaki-chan. I am sure that whoever marries you will be a happy man if you are this good as a cook' and then I also said: 'Is everything alright? Tsubaki you should lay down; I will take care of you'. And after I said those two phrases she was down for the count." I explained, thanking my spirit noes for making my memory be so good. "What is wrong with her?"

This time she yelled out of sheer frustration.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER? NO, I ASKED THE WRONG QUESTION. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO, THAT IS WHAT I SHOULD BE ASKING! FOR MAOUS SAKE YOU TWO ARE TO SLOW FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

Okay… what is going on with her? And how am I slow here? I did catch her before she fell every time she passed out so it is not like I am slow. So why is she saying that?

Sona then took a deep breath and said.

"You know what, frustrating as you two may be, I will leave you two alone for now. You are to stay put right there and NO going out of the house until she wakes up!" She said with so much steel in her voice that if there was more she might have cut the call short (Writer's note: the lame joke is lame).

"But what about school?" I asked, wondering what she would say.

"You can leave this to me, you already missed that many days and one more will not make a difference. I will ask Tsubaki to help you study later." Sona said hanging up in me.

Well, now what? I suppose I could leave, but Sona demanded that I stayed here, also I can't on good consciousness leave Tsubaki here alone when she is so sick.

Let's just call the others back home and inform them that I will be here in the morning and ask about what happened to that dude.

Unfortunately, they did not answer as it was already close to the time to go to school. Oh well, at least I will talk with them later and if things had taken a bad turn they would have called. Also, I know that there is no way that I will not see one of them soon enough. I mean, at least one person will be here soon.

I stayed there watching over Tsubaki, the excessive color on her face receded but she was still sleeping peacefully. Seeing no point in keep staring at her I took out one of my books about witchcraft that I got from Caster and started studying it. I am trying to see if I can combine some witchcraft rituals with my curses. It is promising and I am making some progress. It will be fun to see.

Around 25 minutes later a voice came from my side.

"Is everything okay with you, Castiel-sama?"

Looking at my back I saw Serenity, fully dressed in her assassin's clothes. She clearly arrived not long ago, but again who knows how long she has been here actually.

"Everything is fine Serenity. It is just that Tsubaki passed out and I decided to take care of her until she got better. And with you and the others, is everything okay? And did that dude wake up?" I asked while closing the book for a while.

"Everything was mostly fine, except that there was no breakfast to anyone due to the bounded field you put before leaving yesterday." Was what she said, and I do not regret the use of the bounded field. Who knows what disaster those people could do in the kitchen while I was away. "Well, everyone except Lugh. She managed to bypass the barrier and walked out eating some cookies and caring a pudding."

I am going to have to order her to NOT enter my kitchen, huh. I mean, she is even DARING to steal my primary source of joy when I arrive after training. Those are MY SWEETS!

Again, I must chant some of those Buddhist chants. It is the best way for me to not go out to hunt that evil thief that I for some reason consider a friend.

I then asked a serious question.

"Did the passed out dude woke up."

"We do believe so, the one to talk to him was Emily. He admitted to being part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and when he heard that we are from the Tower he escaped before we could ask anything about what happened." Serenity explained.

I wanted to say I am surprised, but I honestly ain't. His energy was clearly holy, making him a likely to be an exorcist, and considering that the Tower and the angel/church factions are not that friendly towards each other he running away like that is expected.

Although, he could have at least not run away like that. We did save his life after all.

What a rude fellow.

After that, I and Serenity continued to talk for a while more before settling down in silence. I continued to try and imagine how to combine the things I know about witchcraft, runes, and curses while Serenity sat down and started meditating. It apparently helps in connecting more with the heroic spirit she fused with, learn its techniques and integrating more of its skills. It seems that right now she may be fused spiritually but there is still quite some distance until she can claim its full power.

* * *

A few hours later Tsubaki woke up and we decided to go to school as it was close to lunch hour so there wouldn't be much of an issue (especially since Sona was the one to tell us to stay put).

We were talking in the way… is what I want to say, but considering how Tsubaki and Serenity both usually like to just stare at me it was an uncomfortable walk. At least Serenity accepted walking closer and take my hand, I know it may be to intimate as we are not in a relationship but she wanted to and I saw no reason to say no.

Also, she smelled nice.

Tsubaki was as silent as ever while she decided to walk closer to us by positioning herself close enough to my side to our shoulders touch.

And in this form, we approached the school. The fact that people looked at me with venom in their eyes while muttering 'another one fell to this beast' was unnerving.

"DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!"

I heard, knowing who it was before said purple missile hit me squarely on my belly. Looking at Miku's smiling face I could not help but smile back a bit. This smile she is showing more and more now is truly different from the one before, so honest and truthful.

Looking at her like this made me want to keep the promise I did to her, to always protect her as long as she is by my side.

Even though I suddenly feel that the one that is in need of protection is me considering how those previously venomous eyes are now murderous.

GULP

Trying to not pay attention to the crowd (which clearly was planning my death at this instant) I talked to Miku.

"Is everything alright with you?"

"Better now that you are with me. I was feeling so… unsafe without you." Was what Miku said.

Well, it seems like she also is creating quite the dependency in me. I may need to watch that carefully. (she squeezes her boobs in my chest) Look very carefully, some other time.

As I stood up again I saw that Tsubaki was looking at Miku with quite the intense glare, is she envious? Nah, that is impossible. She doesn't like me or anything so why would she be jealous? It is probably due to Miku causing a scene at school. Yep, that is definitely right.

I then sad goodbye to Tsubaki as she needed to go see Sona, apparently, they had talked while Tsubaki was in the bathroom right after waking up.

I then went toward the rooftop with Serenity and Emily to eat lunch, to say it would be whatever I could buy in the cafeteria. We sat down and started talking about whatever passed through our minds, clearing our heads of all the stressful talks about the fallen angel that appeared yesterday. It was clear that the two were quite tense, even though I noticed that they did relax a bit more after Tsubaki went to go see Sona.

If anyone can tell me why I would appreciate.

Huh, what is this feeling? Suddenly I smell hypocrisy in the air. As I look outside I saw the reason for that, it is the Catholic church. Or to be more exact it is four people using vests that are common for the church to use. If you add the fact that I feel that one of them is the same dude I healed yesterday than the fact that they are exorcists is almost guaranteed. As he is here while dressed like that it must mean that he ran away to go and see his comrades as fast as possible

Not that I care, anything related to devils and the church sounds like 'not my business'. Especially since if there is any problem Rias will notify me and request for help.

As I am feeling the presences of the other three members, mostly to see if any of them could be a threat. I saw that two of them are caring over rated tooth sticks that they had the brain-dead idea of calling Excalibur fragment. One of those two is also caring a sword that I actually can respect, one that is equal to a noble phantasm when used right. Well, carrying it in a compact dimension but for someone like me who is learning and had to deal with space magic so much it isn't even hidden.

Finishing looking at the first two my eyes glanced over to the last one, decided to check and see who it was. As soon as I started to feel for her presence I identified who it was. My blood boiled in righteous rage when I realized who it was.

Now she will not escape and she will pay what she owes me!

With this thought in my mind, I contacted Emily, Okuyasu and Lugh. When I said that I needed everyone with me right now there was a clear sound of disapproval, but when I said to them who it was that was here both Lugh and Emily yelled at me for not saying so earlier.

In less than one minute the three appeared by my side, both girls looking all around for that person while Okuyasu was confused about what was going on.

I just pointed toward where HER went and so the six of us started walking to our destination, the old school building where Rias and her club are. When I approached the building enough for it to enter my detection range I realized that all of Rias and her peerage as well as Sona, Tsubaki and Saji are there.

Not waiting, for fear of that person running I entered the building and the room where a meeting was happening.

"Oh, Castiel-san. I was about to ask Akeno to ask you to be here."

"Yeah, yeah just wait a minute Rias. I have someone that I must see right now." I said dismissively to Rias, her pouting at my answer was dully noted and ignored right away.

I have something more important to take care of, like demanding what should have been mine for a very long time.

And as one I, Emily and Lugh turned to the same person. She had white wavy long hair, golden eyes, and a voluptuous body. Her face was pretty and she looked to be in her late twenties and a bored expression on her face.

She is Karen Hortensia, the daughter of the murderous psycho priest Kotomine Kirei and she is also well known for her healing and sealing techniques. She has also come from the same dimension than my father and the others from the Tower and she.

"'"PAY BACK THE MONEY YOU OWE US!"""

Is owing money for the three of us.


	56. Chapter 51

Castiel P.O.V.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Was the answer of this woman. Normally I am not good at being mad or attacking a woman, but she is an exception.

She used to go to the Tower quite a lot as she has come from the same world as the others there. She is also good friends with Bazet and usually looks like she is a good-natured person due to her drive to help others.

However, this is all superficial. She is the type that loves to see trouble happening and takes pleasure when treating others from serious injuries. She is a true sadist and most of all, she did not pay back the money she 'borrowed' from us. I still remember how she asked me for the password for my bank account once to take out some cash for helping her when she needed. I foolishly believed because I was but a kid and thought that she was one of my 'nice onee-sama's'.

The end result was that she took everything from my account, including what I had accumulated during my previous birthdays'. A whopping 100 thousand yen. The same happened with Lugh and Emily, it was before any of us understood what we had and the actual value of cash. Lugh was smarter, but all Caren had to do was throw to her a 'diamond' and the girl gave her the password. Fun fact is that the diamond was a fake.

This might have been what made us friends back then, nothing is quite as good to create friends as a mutual enemy.

"You owe us the money you stole. Now give it back!" Was what Emily said. Her rage is to do with the fact that without the money she had she was 'bullied' by Yuno as Yuno used to go buy her favorite ice cream and eat before her with me. The fun fact is that I used to eat it together with Emily that mark, but then I started eating it with Yuno instead. Nothing much has changed to me, but the amount of 'Aaahh~~'s I had to deal with was quite huge.

I still don't see how that was bullying her, even though Emily once told me it was.

"I still don't remember." Caren answered Emily, all with an uninterested face. "Would it be the money I got for my kick-starter?"

"I don't know anything about a kick-starter, but I do know that you owe each of us 100 thousand yen. Now GIVE. IT. BACK!" I said, all while glaring at her.

I want my money.

And that is what I got as she took out of her back her wallet and tossed 200 thousand for each of us.

Huh, that simple? But-

"With this, you will stop talking right? *Sigh*, if you don't have anything interesting like an arm broken in over 45 places please don't make such a scandal." Was what Caren said.

"I-if you have the money, why did you took it from us back then?" I asked, feeling a bit embarrassed as the others in the room were looking at us funny.

"Oh, I have this much money now due to the amount I got for the kick-start. My idea worked well enough and now I am the most powerful due to being filthy rich. Money is the true ultimate power in this world." Was what she said, losing the uninterested look for a sneer.

Well, at least I got my money back with interest. Receiving what she owed me calmed me down enough for me to take a step back. No point in fighting anymore, but I will NOT buy anything for her.

After that Rias invited me to sit down on a couch she prepared. Unfortunately, there would be nowhere to sit for the others, but that is easy to solve. First I asked for Lugh and Miku to go back to class as the two have very sensible positions (Miku is from a totally different Pantheon that is not allied or very friendly to either the devils or the church and Lugh told me she stole one of the Pope's hat, reason being that it was a treasure). Following that, I decide to use the alchemy I learned.

First I took out some metal strings made of a special alloy that is very conductive of magic, then I proceeded to use my alchemy to expand and transform those strings into a full sized couch made of interconnected strings. It even looked beautiful and majestic, making me prefer to sit on it with Emily, Okuyasu, and Serenity.

Now there were clearly three sides here. One being the devils, other the Catholic church and the last being us from the Tower. Let's see what is happening exactly.

"Huh, to even dare use that blasphemous magic in the presence of the church. You guys from the tower are clearly heretics." Was what a blue haired woman said. Hearing this made me get a tick mark on my forehead, but I choose to ignore it for now. I need to know why they came here before anything else (the money part excluded, that was simply justice).

Another girl, this time with chestnut hair in pig-tails (that I noticed that Issei has been staring at) decided to scold the blue-haired woman from before… sorta.

"Xenovia-chan, please don't create trouble for us." She said. The other two were just looking at it all with funny faces, or at least the man was Caren did not even bother to look at it.

"B-but Irina." Xenovia said, but was faced with a glare from Irina. The two started glaring at one another so I decided to do what any person in my position would do and say something to dispel this awkward moment.

"Don't worry about it, twin-tail-san. She is just acting like most high ranked Christians did throughout the history and being a hypocrite to others." And dispelled it by creating another even worse.

And THAT made the church group look at me, the only difference was how Caren was looking with mild interest in contrast to the offended and angry looks from the other three.

"What did you say? I think I heard it wrong, so do you mind repeating it again?" Xenovia asked

I looked at her with a refreshing smile and was about to open my mouth to express how much I admire the Catholic church's hypocrisy over history, but it was at that moment when Rias decided to give a loud cough and interrupt our discussion.

Shame, it is always fun to see how those indoctrinates assholes to deal with the facts.

"Let's stop right there and return to the subject from before, shall we?" Was what Rias said.

Xenovia kept her glare at me and then said.

"Sure."

Sighing in relieve Rias gave space for Sona to continue. Rias might have gotten better at diplomacy but she still is not that great at it.

"So, what is the reason for the four of you to enter this town even though it is Devil's territory. Just a warning, if the reason is not good enough or if we judge that you might be a threat you will be removed from here with prejudice." Sona said.

Nodding in understanding the one to take the lead was Irina (Caren is the most senior but she would probably let something offensive out, 'accidentally').

"We have information that a precious item from the church was stolen and the thief has come towards this town."

Is it just me or is everyone among the devils looking at us. And the cold sweat is rolling down my back while one thought plagued my mind: 'Please don't tell me it was Lugh, just please don't let it be her.'

Taking her eyes away from me Sona asked.

"And do you know who did it? And what is the item?"

Nodding at the question Xenovia was the one to open her mouth.

"The one who stole from us was the fallen angels" okay, that might be tricky to deal with. If a fallen angel did this, it must be quite powerful and be a warmonger as bringing some precious holy item here to Kuoh is tantamount to trying to make a war between the three factions detonate. "and the item stolen are four of the Excalibur fragments. The mightiest swords there are."

At that, I and Emily started laughing out loud.

The glare being sent to me by the others was intensified, but I couldn't care less. Especially when I just heard such a good joke.

"Hahahahaha, haha, haaa… that was a good one. I didn't know that you guys from the Church were so funny." I said, removing some light tears from the corners of my eyes.

"And what was it funny from what I just said?" Xenovia asked with a cold tone.

"The part of it being the 'mightiest', that lie was just so funny." I said, trying hard not to laugh again, and failing quite a bit.

Xenovia was about to open her mouth to yell at me when there was another cough, this time from Sona, so as to return the mood back to what it was.

"And what do you want from us exactly?" was what Rias asked.

Xenovia is the one to answer.

"We want you guys to not interfere with our actions when retrieving the Excalibur fragment" I snickered again, the joke is still funny. "And to not get in our way."

Rias and Sona were about to agree, but I interfered.

"Don't agree to it yet you two. You got to think carefully." The two looked at me confused, but seeing how I turned into my more serious persona the two decided to listen to what I had to say. I turned to the exorcists and said. "Can you tell us who exactly took the over glorified toothpicks?"

The tick mark on the three younger ones was quite fun to see. Then it was the male that answered.

"The one that stole it still is unknown but it is considered that it is at least a mid ultimate-class fallen angel. It would be necessary to be at least this strong to steal such an item from such a heavily guarded place." Well, that only applies if you exclude Lugh. She could enter almost anywhere and steal anything like it was nothing.

Now, focusing on what he said, there is even more reason to not listen to what they are requesting.

"If it is so, I must say that there is no way for us to allow for you guys to move as you want and not interfere at all." I said, causing both Sona and Rias to look at me interested. Well, it was just for a while as both of them understood my reasons soon enough.

"And why is that?" Irina asked.

"Simple, because you guys are too weak to deal with such an opponent and the risk of collateral damage for the town due to your failure would be simply too big." I said.

This time Xenovia stood up and took out her weapon, pointing a sword at me. I simply continued looking straight at her.

"I can tell you right now, this sword of yours is simply not enough. Even if you use the other is still would fall short of making you guys a match for a mid-ultimate-class. And that is the bare minimum of strength that your opponent will have, for all you know it might be a fucking super-class that did it. Do you really think you are strong enough to deal with it? And without causing massive loss of lives?" I said.

At that everyone else realized what I meant. The guys from the devil side understood and paled a bit, probably imagining how many lives could be terminated if they simply accepted such a proposal. Meanwhile, Irina and the male exorcist were looking nervous at my idea. The two probably did not think of that possibility. Caren is looking at it all uninterested, she knows how to handle herself and probably came here more to deal with the injured than anything else, she does like that after all.

"We will deal with it when the time comes." Was what the only one that did not seem to have understood my meaning said. Xenovia really seems like the impulsive type, and her next few words proved that. "And how could you guys help if you are weaker than me?"

The smile that was played by everyone excluding Xenovia, Irina, and the male exorcist was interesting. It was the type you use when you hear someone saying something stupid.

Me, weaker than her? Please, even when I was high mid-class I was still stronger than her. Now it is even more out of question, getting to high-class is a huge jump in power that is difficult to trespass after all. So much so that even though I reached the absolute limit of mid-class I was only capable of fighting high high-class enemies that were not particularly strong in the class.

"And what would I need to do to make you understand the facts?" I asked.

She smiled at me and said.

"A battle. It will be three versus three to see who is the stronger side. Each of your group will be sending one of yours to face us. What do you say?"

I turned to Rias and Sona, wanting to know what the two think. The two of them thought for a while and then said.

"I agree, the one to fight for our side will be Tsubaki." Was what Sona said. I nodded to her and then said to Tsubaki.

"I am happy to fight by your side, Tsubaki-san."

Her face went red and she could do nothing but look all around with an incredible interest in the wall on the side. Seeing this Sona released one of her frustrated grunts and decided to take some tea to calm down, she must be worried about Tsubaki's safety. Let's calm her down a bit. "Don' worry Sona-Kaichou. I promise to protect Tsubaki and not let anything hurt her."

Hearing this Tsubaki turned to me and stared very hard, before her nose start bleeding and she passed out, again. Sona saw all this and said.

"You are doing it on purpose, no other explanation. You are clearly doing it on purpose!" She said with an angry tone.

"It is always fun to see your handiwork Castiel. And this one seems easy to tease too, very funny." Said Caren with a slight chuckle.

I could only look confused. Was it my fault? How? I did not do anything much so why are these two saying that?

"So… who is going for your side Sona-Kaichou? Tsubaki has been bad for the whole day and she even passed out right now so I don't think it could be her." I said, trying to ignore the strange looks some of those in the room were giving me.

"Saji, I chose you." Sona said. ( **writer's note: if it wasn't clear enough I will say it now, I am a fan of Pokemon** )

"Hai, Sona-Kaichou." Saji said, excited about doing something more instead of just training. I did not train him in particular, but if memory serves me right he had a very useful sacred gear and I taught him one of my curses to complement its skills.

Nodding towards him I turned to Rias, and she said.

"If there will be just boys on the other two sides, how about dear Issei?" Is what she said. The brunet put a smile on his face and the two of us did a high five. What can I say, the dude has made progress and is working hard enough to become stronger.

I can respect that.

As the decision was made we formalized the bet if they win we will not interfere. If they lose (which they will) we will interfere. With that set, we went to a backyard that the Gremory group was using for their training are. There we went to the two extremities, one being Xenovia, Irina, and the male exorcist and the other being me, Issei and Saji.

As we reached there Xenovia and Irina released their weapons, Xenovia with Excalibur Destruction and Irina with Excalibur Mimic. Those two were truly badly made, while it is true that the holy energy of a shard from Excalibur is amazing they barely seem to have touched it properly. Look at Excalibur Destruction, for instance, the energy of the shard inside it is the second biggest on the whole Excalibur but the energy transmission and use are as good as someone using a bazooka to smash things.

These holy 'swords' are a total and complete waste of materials, or at least is what my father used to say after analyzing it. He even proposed to forge them anew, back to what it was supposed to be and possibly even stronger to the point that it would be comparable with Saber's sword.

The higher-ups from the church refused due to it being a 'blasphemy to the great holy sword of the church', which is total BS since the sword was from the Pendragon family originally and when the sword broke the church managed to steal most of its shards.

Just looking at those blades makes me mad.

Interrupting my line of thought someone talked to me.

"Hey, why are you fighting? Shouldn't you be sending someone instead?" Was what Saji asked. I took a deep breath to calm my mind, looked at him and sad.

"I was planning to, but there is someone that is demanding for me to prove the inferiority of those badly made mystic codes that they dare put the name of Excalibur." I then removed my weapon for this fight. One that was transmitting to me one all too eager desire for showing off and declaring its superiority to any form of Excalibur.

Clarent really is too full of pride, huh.

As the sword appeared in my hand the pressure I liberated reached a whole new level. This sword was a holy blade much like the Excalibur from Saber, it doesn't hurt devils just by its presence so the devils had no problem due to me being close to them. It would be beneath it to hurt others when it is not needed.

This sword would never hurt those it considers allies or subordinates, it considers itself to be a king among swords and only to be wielded by someone it considers a king as well. This is why t normally resists me when I try to wield it, even though the resistance it is giving is getting weaker since this last mission I had. Normally I would not choose it to any serious fight like this (not because I don't want to but because it would try and go against me using it), but the eagerness of it is so that I don't think I have much of a choice.

Feeling the fluctuations of holy energy that the sword was liberating I felt calmer and more eager to this fight. The devils and the ones from the Tower were looking at me with some degree of awe or respect, such was the level of Charisma that the blade exuded and gave to its wilder. There was a different response on the church side.

"Since when did such holy blade exist? I don't remember hearing about it." Was what Irina said.

"I don't know it as well, but with this amount of holy energy… it must have been stolen as well." Xenovia said, almost making me trip on nothing. Is this what she is thinking? Seriously? "Irina, change of plans. We will retrieve the holy blade back to where it belongs!" The sweat drop on my back was even larger this time.

It 'belongs' to me from the start, so why is she looking at me as if I am a thief? Does she think that all holy blades belong to the church? Is she dumb, or is she innocent and foolish in how the world works?

Independent of that I turned to the male and said.

"Before we begging, can you tell us your name? We already got the names from Irina and the dumb-dumb there" "Oy!" "but we still don't know yours." I said, taking no small pleasure in how that Xenovia girl reacted to my words.

Serves her right for calling me a thief. Humph.

"Oh, did I forgot to introduce myself? Sorry about that, and about this fight. You guys saved my life earlier but here I am fighting against you, I am really sorry. And my name is Allen, Allen Walker." And as the male exorcist said that a sacred gear appeared forming a white-hooded cowl and sleeve of holy energy which covers his shoulders and right arm, while his left arm and hand become slender and black, clad in armor and razor-sharp claws. A masquerade-style mask is always affixed to the cowl, which takes on various configurations and appearances.

The energy that it liberated was quite great and I realized that this gear was powerful, and if the holy energy it is releasing is anything to go by it is probably a prototype Longinus like the ones from Kuroko and Yuno.

It seems that there will be some challenge after all, especially since he is not yet using a balance breaker. A predatory smile surfaced on my face as I thought one thing.

This will be fun.


	57. Chapter 52

Castiel P.O.V.

As me, Issei and Saji faced off against the three exorcists I made a prompt decision, launching myself against Allen. He is the most dangerous one in there, mostly due to Xenovia don't take out whatever weapon she is trying (and failing) to hide.

He responded to my approach by liberating many white tendrils at my direction from his white-hoodie. Evading them is hard since they were like a living spider web, it quickly got everywhere. In the end, he managed to catch my ankle and pulled me to launch me far away, and that was his mistake. Despite being sent flying I am far from out of the game, I proved that by releasing a small mana burst from my left foot so as to counter the force he used while sending me flying.

I normally would change for Gandiva at this point, but Clarent is sending me multiple messages saying that it wants to defeat the Excalibur fragment. I might as well do what it wants.

While all this seems to have taken a while it barely took 3 seconds, and thus both Issei and Saji were still on their way towards the exorcists.

"Saji, go after Allen. Your gear must be a natural counter to his." I said and Saji did just that. He was originally going for Xenovia, but he changed directions mid-sprint so as to go after Allen. He then released his gear, **Absorption Line** , and launched a thread from it directing it to Allen.

Seeing the attack coming towards him Allen released many threads of white energy to stop it, but the tread of absorption line did not need to enter in contact with him, to begin with. When the two threads came in contact with one another the one from Saji glued itself to the ones from Allen and started to absorb Allen's power. He tried to shake it off, but he failed as the thread from Absorption Line is extremely adhesive and removing it is easier said than done. In the end, Allen frustratedly cut off that part of the thread from his own gear before deciding to go for physical attacks only, probably out of fear of going after someone else and be ambushed Saji.

Meanwhile, Issei reached Irina and the two started exchanging attacks at high speed, but looking carefully it was possible to see that both of them were 'pulling their punches' as neither aimed at anything vital and despite the high intensity of the fight there was not a single drop of blood being shred. What is that all about? It is almost like when I spar with the twins or Kuroko, both refusing to actually hurt each other.

Choosing to ignore that I focused on my opponent, which was coming towards me with a battle cry and swinging a giant sword. It is like the subtlety of an elephant in a porcelain store. She moved fast towards me, but not fast enough for me to be unable to use some of Caster's magic bombing or trying my hand in space control that witchcraft allows.

But I choose to not use either since there was only one way to convince the headstrong and warrior types, a direct clash. It is what I heard from Saber, and she managed to convince my father to not go on suicidal missions every day by beating some sense into him with Excalibur. Instead, he used to go every three days. It is a proof of concept good enough for me.

With my course of action decided I reinforced my legs, ignoring the pain from my magical circuits that were still too weak due to its bad quality, and sprinted towards Xenovia with Clarent. The clash was very simple, she used her Excalibur Destruction in an overhead strike, I used Clarent in a horizontal slash, the two swords clashed, one of them got a huge crack spreading from the point of impact and the other one was perfectly fine as before the impact, my Clarent was releasing satisfaction at the result and Xenovia looked at complete lost at what happened.

It must be a shock for her, to see her prized 'powerful' sword cracking with just one clash. This is simply the difference in specs, my sword was made with energy straight out of a ley-line, thus supplying power from the world, the materials used were all of the superior quality when compares with the Excalibur Destruction and the forging process was simply perfect.

The forging technique used for Excalibur Destruction was mostly just based on the alchemy they 'confiscated' from the magicians they killed throughout Europe during the middle ages due to it being 'too dangerous'. The fun part is that they only got to kill the incompetent magicians as the others escaped almost unscratched, thus the forging techniques used for the Excalibur fragments were all sub-par at best. The only exception being Excalibur Ruler, but now that one was destroyed to make Excalibur Galantine.

"Now, do you still want to continue?" I said, pointing my Clarent straight to her. She looked like she wanted to continue but knew that Destruction was out since it was in no condition (not that it being in perfect condition would make any difference).

Seeing her feeling lost and feeling the wish for battle from Clarent still unfulfilled I decided to propose something.

"Why don't you take the other sword out?" I said, much to her shock.

"H-how do you know of it?" Xenovia asked, still on the defensive. Not that I would attack someone unarmed while it is not an actual enemy.

I smirked at her question and said.

"Simple, because the space you guarded it is far from completely isolated. I can feel this sort of energy fluctuation very clearly when in a 75 meters' radius." actually 100 meters, a little deception that could be helpful in the future as giving away exact data about me is against my training. "Now stop wasting our time and take this fight seriously!" I said in a commanding voice. She shocks hearing that voice and said something that I could not understand before putting her hand forward.

Following that action, a ripple in space appeared and she shoved her hand in that distorted space. From there she started releasing a sword that was covered in chains, chains that disintegrated when she started to chant.

"Saint Peter. Saint Basil the Great. Saint Denis. Holy-mother Mary. Please hear my voice. In the names of the saints whom reside within this blade, I will release it."

And with one powerful pull breaking the last chain locking it she declared.

"Durandal!"

Wow, this is even more interesting than I thought.

This is a beautiful blade. It is a two-handed weapon with a handle, guard, and edge of blessed gold while the rest is made of pure holy ore, the mineral that possesses the purest and most perfect holy energy there is. According to Zelretch the most any world has f this mineral is around 50kg, but Durandal alone seems to carry at least 5kg. It just serves to show how immensely powerful and precious this blade really is, a blade that is said to be comparable to an Excalibur.

Lucky me that my Clarent doesn't lose in any way when compared to it, as it also was made with 5kg of said ore and was created by the use of the most perfect techniques that my father had, and he had a reality marble that is a weaponsmith wet dream.

When Clarent felt the energy from Durandal I could feel its excitement for a good battle, if I were to bet the defeating of the Excalibur Destruction was just to spite that failed work. But now is different, what it is after is not destroy its opponent, instead, it wants to fight.

As we pointed our blades to each other Xenovia decided to talk.

"Before we begin, I need to ask you something." She said with a serious face.

"Go ahead." I said, watching her every movement so as to react accordingly. And considering how tight her clothes are (whoever designed it must be a pervert, that is what happens when you said that all priests must be celibate, they do 'clothes' like those), it is possible to see her every muscle and when you know how to observe well enough you can even predict your opponent's movements with certain certainty.

"How can you use a holy sword comparable to Durandal? And what is that sword in the first place?" Xenovia asked. Looking at her it was clear that she was ready to react to any attack, but was not planning on starting one now. If this was a battle to the death I would already have launched myself at her, but as this is a spar I might as well entertain her.

"This blade is called Clarent, a sword of equal level to the true Excalibur and is also known as the Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword. The one that is to be wielded by a future king to show that he is the one that deserves to rule." As I said that Xenovia seemed to comprehend that this was not such a simple sword that she could defeat easily by just using her own. But she still exuded confidence, that was quashed with my next words. "And I can wield it because I am a natural holy and demonic sword user."

It was not just her, Irina and Allen also sopped in their tracks and looked at me dumbfounded. I can understand, I really can, it was supposed to be impossible for one person to use both holy and demonic swords. It was against the common knowledge of the world, but so is being capable of using blessings and curses at the same time and yet here I am.

As Xenovia continued looking at me incredulously I got tired of it and said.

"Do you want to continue admiring or to fight? Come on!" And with that, I moved, and it was like a gong for the fight to continue as Issei and Saji started their fighting as well (at least Saji was holding up, even if barely due to how much better Allen was in CQC).

Moving at high speeds I started trading blows with Xenovia, and it was exhilarating. Fighting like this, openly and directly was quite good. The feeling of strength against strength, destruction against destruction, it was all fantastic. She tried to change things up by doing a mighty slash from below, and I simply moved to the side to avoid it.

The energy liberated by Durandal on this slash was strong, too strong in fact as it went out and continued in its trajectory. And its trajectory was… towards Irina.

Alarm bells rang in my head when I saw this, especially when Issei shoved Irina to the side and entered Balance Breaker to protect himself.

The clash resulted in an explosion of high proportions, so much so that Issei flew away with his Balance Breaker breaking into pieces. It probably could not stabilize properly before the impact, thus resulting in the armor breaking.

Forgetting about this stupid match I ran together with the others toward Issei. Luckily he was thrown on a patch of leaves cushioning the impact. As everyone approached him we realized that he passed out. I stopped Koneko from trying to heal him, it would take too long before she managed to do anything effective and the light element of a sword like Durandal was too toxic to him as a devil. I also stopped Okuyasu as I knew what was needed wasn't his powers, as the damage caused by this sort of attack is not that simple.

I put my left hand over him to devour the light energy that was hurting him. Luckily thanks to the dragon energy that his sacred gear put in him he was not as damaged as other devils of his level would be. In the end, he still was a mid-class devil, surviving even ten seconds after receiving an attack from Durandal would be impossible without the dragon energy protecting him.

After I finished Devouring the light energy from him I inscribed a rune of healing at him and also casted a blessing made for healing. I turned to Lugh, that I knew would be here as soon as Durandal appeared (she is just that fanatic for treasures), and said.

"Lugh, go and fetch Miku here. We need her to help Issei in restoring his magic circuits before the damage becomes permanent." She nodded and did as I said. She may normally be a royal pain in the ass but she did know when to listen.

While she was gone I asked Okuyasu to heal him of his bodily damage, as it was the limit of his sacred gear, and then continued putting more energy in the blessing I was using on him. I need to stabilize and protect his circuits or it might damage not only his fighting power but also his very soul due to how connected the magic circuits are connected to the soul itself.

In less than a minute Miku entered the area together with Lugh, when I saw her I said.

"Miku, please help him. He needs your help." Hearing this she nodded and started singing a beautiful song, I needed to concentrate on not being lost in her songs. Damn, why is it that when she put her all in her songs they become so good?

My face must be showing how intoxicated I am hearing the song as Miku smiled and started purring even more energy into the music. At the end of the melody, I did a structural grasping of Issei and confirmed that his circuits are all back to how they were before.

I then turned to the others and said.

"He is fine now, he just needs some time to wake up so no worries." And I was rudely shoved aside by two females that ran straight to Issei to check if he was okay.

"Issei-sempai, please wake up, nyaah~." Koneko said, purring nature energy into him while embracing his side.

"Issei-kun, why did you do that? Please get up, I don't want you to get hurt for me." The other one, surprisingly as it is, was Irina that was looking at him full of worry.

Seeing this everyone did not know what to do, and thus I said.

"You guys take him inside." Rias was about to go with them, but I then followed it up by saying. "Rias, Sona please stay here. We need to finish our discussion with the church right now."

Sona nodded and did not look to be surprised at my comment, she probably expected such since she did not even attempt to move from the spot she was. Rias looked torn, but also remained here. She learned well during her training and now seems to have understood how to act in this sort of situations.

Nodding to them I turned back to Xenovia, Allen and Caren.

Allen was stealing glances at Issei, clearly worried for his well-being. He is probably good at heart and the type that likes to protect, my hypothesis proved by how he did not use the sharp claws from his sacred gear on Saji and tried to contain others instead of hurting them.

Caren was mostly looking at me, a look of respect in her face. She probably approved of my actions on how to best treat Issei. She is an expert in healing and treating others so her approval means a lot more than most.

Xenovia looked like she did not know what was happening exactly. She was also with a face full of guilt for almost attacking her own teammate and frustrated. I had this conjecture since she released Durandal, but after that last attack and how she is reacting, I got my confirmation.

God, what does the church is thinking about sending her to the field like this? Are they desperate now that their dogs (A.K.A. Iscariots) were excommunicated or are they brain dead? If you ask me it is the second option, but who really knows?

"Xenovia, you don't control your weapon yet, right? Or at least not fully controls it." I did not much say as I declared the obvious. How can the Church in good consciousness (if they have any, they did allow for Iscariots to work under its protection for decades after all) send someone with an unstable blade with incredible powers to devil territory when said person is not fully in control of it?

And to a city full of innocent and unrelated civilians at that. How is that a good idea? Do they prize those useless toys that much? It really is how I thought, while the religion itself is good the people spreading it are not that good, and in this case, the no good part is on the head.

"I suppose this proves that you guys are NOT ready to deal with all of this alone. And even if you could, you would be more of a threat to the civilians than anything else." I said. Xenovia started talking, probably the only one that will disagree with me after this last display.

"B-but I was trained to protect the weak and-"

"Almost killed your comrade, failed to control your sword, and would possibly damage buildings and other structures that might have civilians inside. Girl, you might be chosen to carry that sword around but you definitely are not ready to use it inside a city." I said, cutting her own words.

"But we need to retrieve the Excalibur fragments." Was what she said, still unconvinced.

"Answer me this, what is more important for you as a follower of God's teachings: a weapon to kill or the lives of the innocent?" I asked.

And THAT shut her up. God, why is it that talking to those one track minded people is such a difficult thing? If she wants to be a Cristian her first priority should always be the well-being of the innocent, not the power to hurt others.

God did NOT put anything about killing on his ten rules, quite the contrary in fact, and the Church can say it is fine depending on the 'circumstances' as much as it damn wants and it still will never be fine.

"That is what I thought. At least you understand how absurd it is for you guys to work alone. Now, here is my proposal to everyone here. We will make a team to deal with this whole shitstorm we are dealing with. We can send some from each of the devil's side, us from the Tower and you exorcists. The total capacity of those looking to retrieve those overhyped toys from the church before they can be used against the devils to kick-start a new war. I mean, using a holy sword that the church lost to kill the heirs to two great devil clans is a great way to start the whole thing again, especially when the one that could be targeted are the little sisters of two Maou siscons from a race that almost 40% wants to see a new war."

At the end of my words, both Sona and Rias got a lot paler. The reality that they are probable targets finally sinking in. I suppose I should do something to alleviate their fears.

"Don't worry you two. You just got to remember that your lives are more precious now than in any other time and that you should try to maintain your peerage as close to yourselves as possible at all times. As for the ones to go help us look for those precious sticks, for Rias' side I would recommend Issei, due to his obvious proximity to Irina and the fact that he has some draconic energy on him making him more resistant to holy energy. For Sona's side, I think the best option is Tsubaki as she trained with me more the teamwork is better and her sacred gear can be very useful to us that are going out of our way to find an ultimate-class being." I said.

The two were somewhat better, but the worry was still visible on their eyes. I suppose I might as well sweeten the deal some more.

"If you two are that worried I will ask for the Tower to send in some reinforcements to work as bodyguards for you two. Would that make things better?" I proposed.

The two of them thought for a while before agreeing. The two probably understand how professional the Tower's agents work so their worries are lessened somewhat. Normally I would recommend calling in some devil's support as well, but considering how Rias provoked the governors in the rating game and how the risk of someone that the devils send be trigger happy and try to do something stupid is quite high, yeah better not get them involved at all.

At the very most we can inform Syrzechs and Sona's older sister, Serafall, so as to make then ready to move in case of extreme need.

After that Xenovia, Allen and Caren agreed to my proposal as well. And thus now it is time to inform the others of our decisions and see who the Tower has to offer for helping out our allies. I just hope it ends up fine.

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

In an expensive room in a penthouse in Kuoh, there were four being sitting down enjoying some wine while looking at a crystal ball that was connected to a familiar positioned in the Gremory's training ground. It has been planted there for over a week now and no one from their 'opponents' was any the wised.

As they looked at their opponents planning how they would face them the leader of those four had a battle-hungry smile that was mirrored by the other three on lesser degrees, the thoughts of how the next few days would be different to the absolute boredom that was like after the great war filled their minds.

And the key factor to make their next great war campaign even more exhilarating, even more bloody and wild was right there. Taking command of the enemy forces that would stand against the next war.

The smiles grew even wilder when they thought that. Now it was time to test who will victory chooses in the end, and they would be the ones chosen. After all, they had 3 ultimate-classes and one super-class fallen angel on their side.

That is what was on the mind of Kokabiel and his three generals as the next step of their plan was close to being taken.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Sorry for what happened, I accidentaly posted this chapter before verifying its orthography and I wanted to make sure it was beter for you guys.**

 **I guess that is what happen when you post two stories at the same time, a little mistake sometimes is unavoidable.**

 **But again, sorry so much for the trouble.**


	58. chapter 53

Castiel P.O.V.

"How? How do you always got tangled in this sort of situations? First you got pulled in a fight with Iscariots and now you are facing at least one ultimate-class fallen angel while trying to find back those failed sticks. You take pleasure in looking for it or is your luck just that bad?" Rin said tiredly.

I was calling her to inform of the situation at hand. This is a complex situation and one bad move can influence not only the Tower but many more factions, so we have to thread the situation carefully.

"I understand you Rin-sensei, I really do. I don't want to get involved as well, but now it is beyond me to get out of this situation. If I leave things like this the image of the Tower will be damaged and others will think of us as cowards and untrust worth it." She grumbled in agreement. She also understands how this sort of situation is delicate and how what I did the right decision.

"So? What do you want?" Rin said, knowing that I would likely request for some things.

"I want you to send two people to help protect Sona and Rias, as they are likely targets, and to send here Yuno. Her searching powers would be the most useful in this sort of situation." I said. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. "And for the two being sent, change it to three and two of them being the twins."

It has been too long since I managed to go on a date with the two or Yuno so I might as well do it now.

"That is doable. The three of them are available right now, and we also can send Bazet as she returned from her last job in Romania not long ago." I agreed with the decision, and am honestly happy to hear Bazet will be coming… oh, wait. Fuck. Fuck no. Fuck no, no, no.

"Don't send Bazet. This is probably the second worse option right now."

"And why is that?" Rin said amusedly.

I gulped and answered.

"Because Caren is he-"

"I am going." Bazet's voice was transmitted from the other side of the line.

Fuck. This is the worst. Last time the two met Bazet almost destroyed two full departments and it was necessary to request Berserker to hold Bazet. It all began with Lancer being drunk and trying to flirt with Caren, and the two got in a complicated situation.

According to some gossip (A.K.A. one of the Sisters) Bazet found him still dead drunk in a more than compromising position, the position being in a hogtie bondage position while in his blue spandex while Caren was in revealing dominatrix clothes. Nothing had happened, yet, but the rage that Bazet feels for Caren continues to this day.

And now I will be having those two right here, together, in close proximity.

Who needs ultimate-class fallen angels to destroy the town in this case, the 'protectors' would do a better job at it.

"I-I am looking forward to seeing you, Bazet-sensei." I just know she will kick my ass royally very soon. I just know it. For me to have said that she was not to be sent here, she will beat me up in name of 'training'.

"And are you treating my little girl well?" Bazet said.

"I sure am. I take good care of her and never touched a single finger on her."

She made a sound of agreement, my relief was short lived as I heard she stretching her knuckles and the sound of steps followed by the sound of a door opening and closing.

I stayed quiet for a few more instants before I started talking to Rin.

"Why did you not tell me that Bazet was there?" I said, trying and failing to hide my fear/anger.

"Because seeing you dig your own grave by yourself is a good lesson in not giving me more headaches."

.

.

I will let her have this one. I am giving her way too many headaches these last few weeks.

"*sigh* I am going to go, but first one last question. When is the new house going to get ready? This one is not capable to support everyone in here." I said, hoping for a good answer.

"Oh, that. It has been done for the last two days." Rin said in a tone equal to the one used to say about the weather.

A tick mark appeared on my forehead.

"And you didn't think of informing me because?" I asked.

"It is funnier this way." She said with a giggle at the end.

This is petty revenge! This is because I put her and Luvia in the same room and the two started a fight, because it is their nature.

Breathing deeply, I said.

"Send Luvia my thanks for the home, I am sure she did the very best possible. Also, go enjoy your 100 yen ramen, as I doubt you would buy anything more expensive than that." And as soon as I finished saying that I hang up.

She may be petty, but so am I.

* * *

A few hours later

I just finished moving from my old place to this new one, and it is fucking amazing. The walls are all ornate, but not to the point of being overbearing; there are 15 rooms for people to sleep in completely furnished, and everything is of high-quality; the kitchen is all equipped by using mystic codes instead of technology (Luvia loves magecraft and hates technology after all), which for me is fine since I can operate it easily and things get done faster this way; the living room is equipped with a 100-inch 16K plasma TV with access to all channels on earth, from normal ones to ones exclusive to the supernatural (I bet it was from Franky-aniki, he does have good taste for this sort of thing).

And the best part (after that TV of course) was the training area. It was underground and it occupied a giant area of around 3 Km², only possible due to a liberal use of space-altering bounded fields. The place was amazing, it had every possible thing I could have requested and more. There was a room of high gravity, one with distorted space to help study it (courtesy of Caster, of course, she is amazing at anything magic related after all), rooms with extreme amounts of elemental power (fire, earth, wind, water, ice, light, and darkness), a sparing field with high amounts of recovery spells on it to make sure that all wounds are healed fast, and a room that could take on an attack from Saber's Excalibur full power.

With all of this, there is not one thing to say was bad in this entire place… is what I want to say, but considering two things I can't say I am all that alright with it. The first is that they 'forgot' to send even one homunculus maid to help clean the place, and I don't trust any of the others to clean shit, and the second problem is that my room has no lock whatsoever.

It means that I got NO privacy in my own room.

But even so, this place is fucking awesome. I am so fucking happy about it that I even sent a message to Rin to thank Luvia for the amazing work (the fact that Rin was fuming and started yelling incomprehensible things on the other side of the phone afterward was an extra to me). Now that I finished going through everything on my new home I can go right back to training, I am itching to go to the space room to see if I can get a better feel to it. Maybe I can even finish the development for some of the new magics I was planning.

DING DONG

The doorbell rang. A vein appeared on my forehead, I don't want any more people coming visit as I want to go train already. The others are all doing it already (getting some needed training before a huge fight is a good option after all) and I know that I need to do it as well. I am just so close to developing a defensive magic that suits me, a combination of reinforcement magecraft and spatial witchcraft, that I can almost feel it. I even am planning on ways to use alchemy techniques with spatial control and runecraft for a new offensive spell. All I need for the development of this and more is time.

As I open the door I see four people on the other side and following that I closed the door.

"Strange, why was there no one on the other side? It must have been a prank." I tell myself, trying to use self-hypnosis to forget that… something was on the other side.

Oh look, I already don't know what it was on that side.

BANG BANG BANG

"Open the door! You saw us now open the door!" Xenovia yelled from the other side and I heard two sighs as well.

"Tch!"

Opening the door, I saw a fuming Xenovia, Irina and Allen with apologetic faces and Caren with a small smile. She probably is taking pleasure out of the 'relationship' that I and Xenovia are, we don't see eye to eye at all.

"And why are the four of you here exactly, better yet how do you even know that this is my home? I moved in just minutes ago." I asked. I just hope that they appearing here is not for what I think it is.

Caren is the one to take a step forward to answer, she understands that the only one that the opinion matter to me among these four is her.

"We came here because we are allied during this mission and wanted to discuss what strategy will be used and to stay closer in case of necessity." Is what she says, and I call BS.

"This is BS, you came here because you want free lodgings, right?" I said accusingly.

She smiled, nodded and said.

"And food included."

She must be trying to kill me by making the vein pulsing on my forehead explode.

"And why can't you rent somewhere close by?" I asked, trying to understand why would she want to come here beside annoying the hell out of me.

"Because Irina spent all our money in a fake painting from a saint." Xenovia said, glaring at Irina that was trying to explain herself. She failed as both Xenovia and Allen were looking at her with accusations in her eyes.

"And why should I care? For me you could go sleep under a bridge nearby, maybe like this, you would decide to spend your money on giving food to the poor and caring for yourselves and the innocent instead of buying some painting. Wouldn't that be more in line with God's teachings?" I said, causing Irina to look perplexed at first before looking down in shame.

At least she realized her mistakes. We are just humans after all, and I was petty in saying that. I know I am in the wrong for pointing out her mistakes, but they are coming to my house uninvited and think it is normal. I need something to put my anger into.

I also know that, even though I would prefer for the exorcists to be as far away from my home as humanly and inhumanly possible, I can't say no to them here. If they are to be attacked and those two toys they call holy swords taken it could lead to some undesirable situations. Even though the Excalibur shards are close to useless the fact is that they still carry fragments of the original Excalibur and that is enough reason for worry.

Four pieces are most likely insufficient for actual use in forging but if two more are added it might be enough to forge a new sword, it would probably not be enough by itself but it would be quite close to it. And imagining a new holy sword being wielded by an ultimate-class or above fallen angel is enough to give me a headache.

Dropping my head a bit, I let them in into the house. As they were entering I asked one last question.

"I almost forgot, but who was it that gave you guys our address?"

Caren turned to me and said.

"Oh, that? It was Rin."

FUCK, she must be laughing her ass off from this. She wants to see this house being demolished, I mean she wants Caren and Bazet working together and living under the same roof.

Afterward, I put them into three rooms, one for Caren, one for Allen and one for both Xenovia and Irina. We agreed to rest for now and wait until our search expert (A.K.A. Yuno) arrives as it is much easier and logical to do that instead of searching blindly.

After they agreed to my proposal and were properly installed I went to go to the training rooms, but before that, someone else asked me something.

"Please help me train with Durandal." Xenovia said bowing her head.

Under normal circumstances, I would tell her to fo fuck herself as I normally would have no reason or motivation to help someone from an un-allied organization to get stronger, one that is having some tensions with the Tower no less. However, these are not normal circumstances. We are trying to face off against some high-level enemies and any help will be welcome, and more importantly, I don't want a loose cannon on my back shooting blindly and that is the best description to Xenovia right now.

Sighing I decided to leave my personal training wait as this is a bit (just a very insignificantly small bit) more important. I regret this fact so much right now. I want to go test this new magic, dammit. Those new additions would make me so much more powerful than right now.

As I lead Xenovia to the underground training area I saw that she was fidgeting a lot.

"What?" I asked. She looks at me and says.

"I have an important question. You like to say so much about the church, and also talks highly of Gods teachings, so are you a Cristian too?" She asked.

I put a finger on my chin and thought for a while. I then answered.

"I am not Cristian, but I do believe in the Cristian God's teachings." I said. And that made her even more confused, if her face was anything to go by. "It is like this: I do believe that people should listen to his ten commandments and that if others did what they say the world would be a better place, but I refuse to be called Cristian due to my vision of the church."

Tilting her head Xenovia clearly failed to understand, so I decided that I might as well put an example.

"If you want an example look at the witch hunting that happened during the middle ages. At the start, it was true that the reason for it was due to the increase of the number of mages and witches, but after a while and looking at all the gold, magic knowkedge and the taste of violence the church took the hunt to extremes. They killed anyone that they believed might have even a connection to a witch and made many fake judgments in the wish for obtaining material riches. One giant example was the Jeanne D'Arc, she was a saint in all possible ways of looking, she was even loved by the angels of heaven and was the last human to truly hear God's voice. And the church executed her and many others while the angels were busy doing war with the devils and fallen angels. Even Gilles de Rais, monster that he was, only was killed for his land and discoveries on magic that the church wanted for itself. How could I ever say that I have any association with such a corrupt and dirty organization?" I said it all, and if her face changing colors from red to white and in the end back to red was any indication she did not like what I said.

And I officially don't give a damn.

After that, she kept asking me questions, but I simply couldn't find it in me to answer her anymore. My mind already formulating how those new magics I was trying to create would work and how to go in making them. I was never happier about the self-hypnosis training I did when I was a child, thanks to that I can make my mind work differently than most to the point that I can use 75% to analyze magical formulas and the other 25% to everyday life. I still need time to check everything properly a test my theories, but my training speed is definitely much higher thanks to it.

I then led Xenovia to the light energy room and said.

"Go in here and try to connect with your sword. Try to see if you cn transmit your thoughts and receive an answer, if you were truly chosen by it you should manage that just fine. Also, if you want to test your sword go to the sparing grounds. I will face you there until you manage to control the sword to a point that you will not kill an ally due to lack of control." I said.

She nodded to it and entered the room. I don't know how she was raised, but she must try to connect more with her weapon. Weapons like Durandal and Clarent are naturally so powerful that they even develop a pseudo-spirit and if you want to use it to its fullest potential you MUST get its full approval. At least she must be happy, using this sort of highly light concentrated room is the perfect environment for someone to connect himself or herself to a holy blade as it is the place where the blade is the most comfortable.

Afterwards, I went to the sparing grounds and started experimenting on the combination of dragon bone soldiers (Caster taught me how to make them) and my curses. As the two are of evil nature they can naturally mix well, but they are still moving too clumsily and are too fragile. They aren't even worth the magic power expend in making them, if it wasn't for the one nasty ability they have.

When they are broken the curse put inside them is released as an area of effect attack. I guess they will only work as suicide bombers, but I still need to make them more agile as to reach closer to the enemy.

At the same time, I was inscribing a Rune on a seed. It was another idea I had when I heard Lancer-sensei explanation about runes and life energy manipulation (he can be summoned as a Caster and is a highly knowledgeable druid after all). I want to create ways to make powerful trees that will listen to me anywhere. This trees will be capable of entangling using their roots and attack using razor sharp leaves.

And there are so many more ideas to test. So much more that I can create and develop. All I need is time now.

And time is one thing I don't have.


	59. Chapter 54

Castiel P.O.V.

Now it already is late at night. I am practicing my new magics and must say that I am impressed. I can make a total of 12 cursed dragon tooth warriors and the guardian threes are now capable of growing in just 15 seconds instead of the 45 from when I started. Now I want to go and see how well I can take my space manipulation witchcraft, but I can't at the moment due to Xenovia.

I got to hand it to her, she got guts. She has been practicing since early morning non-stop and already challenged me a total of 17 times and she still has not stopped at all. I can't just go do my thing when seeing someone else wanting to be stronger and wanting my help. It is just not something I would do.

Kiba's case (from last year to the start of this one) was different. He might have said that he wanted to challenge me for spars so as to get stronger, but whenever he lost he would not try to improve at all. He believed that it was just because he was limiting his speed and was not taking things seriously. Why should I have cared to help him then?

Xenovia is now challenging me to one final fight of the day. It was not her decision for this one to be the last one, it was I that said that it was enough and to go rest after that. I can still go a bit longer due to spending more time in thinking and theorizing about what I should do so my tiredness is not as massive as Xenovia's.

As I defended against an overhead strike from Xenovia by paring it with Hruting (Kupriotes is not enough to face Durandal and Clarent was not in the mood to train, I honestly don't know if it is a royal sword or a lazy one sometimes). I followed it up by doing a low kick on her left extended leg, making her lose balance and falling to the ground. She tried to roll to the side to avoid any retaliation, but she barely started and had to stop since Hruting was already directly above her neck and just one push would finish her for good.

Taking back Hruting (that strangely enough felt a bit empty inside) I look at Xenovia.

"And what was your mistake this time?" I asked.

She blushed a bit in embarrassment and said.

"Paid too much attention to the sword and not to what was around me." She said.

I nodded and said.

"You are right. We may be practicing to see if you can control your sword better, which you now can, but you must not forget that when fighting the enemy may try to use some alternative movements like the one I just used. There may also be an assassin waiting to kill you on the back or to ambush you. Heck, you can even be surrounded by multiple enemies. You must never forget to put some of your attention in your surroundings." I explained to her.

At the start of this, I would never even bother to give her this explanation, but if she were to die it would not be a good thing. Someone that is so serious in wanting to get stronger to help others is good news for the world, as they would try to help the innocent from the dangers from the magical side of the world. If only she was not from the church I would try to recruit her to the Tower, Durandal user or not.

We then continued the spar, and she was getting better at using her sword by the second. She now could release more controlled light attacks, more focused and dense than before. While far from the limit to what she could reach it was proof that she was growing stronger by the second.

After ten more minutes going all out (for her at least, I still could use my magic or reinforcement to go one step further) I decided to finish this. She wanted to retort and say she could hold on, but considering how her legs were trembling and her grip on the sword was unsteady it was clear that she reached her limit.

"Go rest. You can go to the restorative room first to recover from the body tiredness and then you are to go to bed. There is a limit to what someone can do in one day after all." I said and she relented. As she left to go rest I decided to go to the space room (finally) to see what I can comprehend. With luck, I can understand enough about space control to start developing my new magics.

* * *

In the morning

Next day

"Castiel, wake up." Emily shouted.

"Whoa. W-where am I? What is happening?" I asked, confused.

"You are in your room, and you are resting. Do you have any idea of how worried we were when we got up and saw you passed out full of burn marks and broken veins all over? If it wasn't for Okuyasu and Miku (that was hysteric when she saw you like that by the way) healing your sorry ass, you would be hospitalized for the next month at the very least. What did you do to get like that?" Emily said, shaking me by the shoulders in a very ungentle form.

While being shaken I tried to remember what happened.

I remember helping Xenovia until late at night, then going to the space room. After having some new understandings about space I decided to test the two new magics I wanted, it started just fine and then… nothing.

I probably failed, huh. I need to learn more about space before I try it some more, I don't want another explosion in my face or to rupture my veins because I was too hasty.

"I was testing some new magic, I believed that I could try it safely but it literally exploded right in my face. Don't worry I will only try it again when I am surer about my chance of success." I said to her. My mind already going through some possibilities in how to fix it. I must get stronger to face what is coming and every second count.

Emily looked at my face for a while before sighing and saying.

"Fine, but when you decide to test it again you must inform someone else. No one here wants to see you blow up the house or something like that after all."

I nodded to her.

KNOCK KNOCK

Huh, someone is knocking on my door before entering? It must be Irina or Allen as the others would not do it at all (the ones that know me don't bother with my privacy and Xenovia seems to be the type that acts first and thinks latter).

"Come on in." I said, and I was proven right when Allen was the one entering the room. He had a bowl of soup and some bread on a plate.

"Sorry for being too forward but I heard you got hurt during training so I decided to do something to help. And as an apology for running away after you guys helped me, I heard how you and the others helped me so I wanted to say thank you." He said.

I lifted an eyebrow from his words, so he did know that he was rude back then. I decided to forgive him long ago as there would be no point in being angry at him anyway. But I must ask one thing first.

"Don't worry about the small stuff, we helped you without you requesting so you were free to thank us or not as you wish. But I must ask, why did you run away first chance you got?"

He looked at me sheepishly and said.

"It was because of my sensei. He owes some money from some of the guys from the Tower and I feared that you would demand me to work in exchange for canceling the debt." Allen said, a mix of fear and anger on his face.

I sweet dropped hearing that. So this was the reason? Fear of paying debts? Seriously?

"Why would you fear to pay debts? And who is the one your master is owing money from?" I asked.

"I don't have any good memory about my master's debts. I still remember the times I had to spend as semi-slave labor in a port town because my master drank too much and used me to pay the debt before going to the next town drink some more." The sweet drop grew even larger. I may have grown with sadistic masters but he still had it worse. I suddenly feel that I could get along with him very well. "And one of the people my master owes money is the Tower director, Rin Tohsaka."

Oh, ooohhh, so that is why he was so worried that I might make him pay the debt. Rin IS wildly known as a cheapskate and money grumbler after all so she would do something like that to him (and for good reasons may I add, she is someone that tried to steal candy from a childs hand just to not spend money in buying one for herself. I wanted that candy *SOB**SOB*). But, Allen is lucky. I am butting heads with her right now so I wouldn't go out of my way to trouble him because of debt.

"And who is your master anyway?" I asked while taking the first spoonful of the soup, huh simple but well done.

"Oh, my master is named Cross Marian, one of the head Exorcists." He said and it was proof of my willpower to not have spit everything in my mouth when I heard that.

Fuck, now I feel even more pity to the kid. Marian Cross is known as one of the top exorcists from the church and one of the few humans that could fight a super-class devil on equal grounds, but if there is one thing he is even more known for is his debt.

The guy is so indebted that it is a known fact that it would be necessary to expend half the church's finances just to pay it up, and even if they did that he would spend even more in under one week. If Allen had to help pay his debts while growing up it is not surprising that he is so fearful of debt collectors.

I put my hands on his shoulders and said.

"Don't worry, I won't try to force you to pay up the debt of your teacher." His shoulders relaxed out of sheer relief hearing this. "And you are not the only one that had a demon as a master. I remember once when-"

And thus the two of us started talking about our childhood when we trained under our masters. The two of us were so engrossed in the story that Emily left the room before we noticed and the soup grows cold, but neither of us cared. Finding someone else that had to deal with crazy masters was always a bittersweet experience. Sweet by the fact of finding someone else to talk openly with and bitter due to knowing that someone else also suffered when growing up.

At the end of it, we realized that it was close to midday and we were still talking. We got out of the room still talking and now laughing it out, joking with one another and much more relaxed with one another.

It was a good morning, until I felt the building trembling a bit.

Fuck, it has come. Ignoring Allen surprised face I bolted to the front door, I have guests to see and a paradise to save.

Approaching the front door, I saw what I feared the most. Bazet was there trying to punch an evading Caren that was saying something about bondage and ropes. As the two continued their 'game' I saw where they were going, and after wrecking the front door they were heading to the living room. I moved in self-defense as I know that there is something there that could hurt my very soul if destroyed, my new TV.

Intercepting the both of them I used a liberal amount of energy in some curses " **Tiredness** ; **Exhaustion** ; **Consumption** ; **Weakness** " and this managed to make the two notice my presence.

As the two were covered in a dark miasma from the curses I liberated I took a deep breath and said.

"Bazet-sensei, it is good to see you. And the bill to fix the front door will be sent to your account. And just a warning, the TV you are close to destroying is equivalent to three high-class missions at the very least." And that drained a bit of the color in her face, the amount of debt she and Lancer are is no joking matter and if they have any more they will have to survive out of instant ramen.

She then coughed in her hand to dispel the weird mood and got one LARGE step away from the TV.

"It is good to see you too Castiel. I heard of the situation and came here with the others, they are probably getting here any time now. Show them their rooms and come to the sparring grounds, I need to blow off some stea… see how your training is progressing." She just wants to beat me up! She wants a punching bag to relieve stress! Fuck, why are all my teachers like this?

Gulping down and knowing that my face is probably deathly white I said.

"S-s-sounds good to m-m-m-me." I then forced a 'smile' and she nodded her head and went to the first empty room she saw. She will not be staying here as she is to go to Sona's home in exchange for Tsubaki coming here. It is the same for the twins that are going to Rias place in the exchange with Issei.

I did not have to wait for long before three girls entered my place. As I saw the three I could not help but go ahead and give the three a kiss on the mouth each, showing them my feelings for each one. I had seen that not that long ago but I still wanted to do that, they and Seryu are the only girls I am comfortable doing this with. Kuroko is too young, I still am not quite there yet with Miku (even though I don't think this status quo will continue much longer), and my relationship with Serenity is… complex to say the least. I don't even fully understand how I see her and how she sees me and I simply refuse to enter into a relationship without knowing that.

After I kissed them I went to introduce them to the exorcists in here, and more importantly, I told Yuno that she must start the search for all magic signatures in the town. Before we start moving we must first know our enemy forces, their location, and more importantly eliminate any strays that may want to take advantage of the situation to 'fish in troubled waters'. I had once ignored to do that and right when I killed my target and was too exhausted and wounded a stray tried to kill me, if it wasn't for Yuno showing up I would have died.

Strangely enough, I don't remember what happened after she appeared exactly, it is like my memory is blocked and something in my mind says to don't try to see it.

Weird.

Following my request, Yuno released her sacred gear **Aletheia Nikki** to search for what she wanted to know. Unfortunately, it would take a while as she must first disperse some magical power in the town before it would be possible to discover everything she wanted.

Her gear is particularly useful, and useless at the same time. It took time to adapt to a new place and was not useful in direct combat, which is a large minus, but it also gives huge amounts of information on places that it already comprehends and it even informs of new individuals and their locations, strengths, and weaknesses. It is also undetectable so no one ever knows when they're territories are being searched.

Heck, it even allows for more focused intel in one person, including location, health status, what he did in the last twenty-four hours, and other things at all times (if only she used this to anyone else but me *sigh*).

As she started her work I talked a bit with the twins, we decided to go on a new date after this whole thing blows over. They want to go on a rock show from the new musical tur on Europe, and they are crazy to go. I honestly can't blame the two, I mean who wouldn't want to go on a show from U2, Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses? It will be EPIC!

Trying very hard to prioritize these thoughts I went down to the basement to go see Bazet for my beat down. I may have grown stronger since the last time I fought her, but it still is far from enough. Last time I had already reached my limit of being in the high mid-class, and I took an ass whooping. Now I am around two or three times stronger due to the higher reserves I have (even though my magic circuits are still absolute trash), but even growing this much stronger I have no chance in the whole world in beating her.

Arriving on the sparing field I saw that everyone else was reunited to see how it would go, or in less beautiful terms to see me getting my ass handed to me. But even then I noticed that there was one person that stood out, Miku wearing a cheerleader uniform with the words 'Darling is the best' right across her chest. And she was even dancing while using it.

Bazet was not pleased, at all. She never liked how I ended up attracting woman, and how her 'baby girl' liked me so she always enjoyed 'sparing' with me and 'setting me straight'. Ironically enough most times that the sparing sessions ended I would have limbs and bones needing to be 'set straight'.

Taking a deep breath, I took out Hruting and Kupriotes in a dual sword style, activated some runes to reinforce my body and activated my reinforcement. Taking this measures, I said.

"Ready or not, here I come." I then dashed at my highest speed towards Bazet. She looked at me with a stoic face and when I tried to do a sideways cut using Hruting (it has the greater length after all) she simply jumped over it with a rolling motion and followed it up by kicking me on the head.

I was launched like a meteor, before it would be an almost knock-out but now it was not quite there yet. I spun around in mid-air and used Hruting to stop the momentum. When the momentum was almost over I had made a 15 meters' trench in the floor with Hruting but did not give it any thought.

I decided that before I was completely and utterly out-matched when it came down to CQC, so I might as well use something to put things on my side. Most would prefer to use long-range bombardment to try and defeat someone that specialized with CQC, but it was foolish to the extreme to try. Her physical and magical defense are simply too strong, any attack below high-ultimate class might as well not exist.

So what did I do? Use something more indirect of course.

" **Debilitation** ; **Disease** ; **Ruin** ; **Failure** ; **Accident** ; **Crippling** ; **Pain**." With a choice of more dangerous curses, it would damage her much more mentally. Not enough for influencing her extremely but plenty to lower her specs a bit at a time and as they permeate the air now they are much more insidious and invasive. She realized that too so she decided to chase after me to finish it off, but would I let myself be approached by her that easily?

The answer is no.

I started running away from her in circles, waiting for the curses to weaken her to a more acceptable point. And it worked… for about 7 seconds. Bazet got in a crouched position and activate some runes implanted in her shoe's sole, turning into nothing more than a blur to me.

I then felt an immense pressure in my lower back, that luckily did not aim for my spinal cord. The momentum of the punch was added to my running speed and made me be launched straight into the wall. Luckily I activated some blessings when I was running away from her ( **Greater Hardening** , **Indomitable Will** ) so I was not out of the game yet.

Before she could follow up and punch me again I did a flip jump over her and managed to avoid those weapons of destruction she calls fists. Positioning myself behind her I tried to use both Kupriotes and Hruting to cut her in the back, Hruting managed to but the most external clothes she was using (an elegant business suite) but Kupriotes was incapable of doing the same. It may be time to see what I should do about Kupriotes; it just isn't being enough anymore.

Reacting to her suit being cut Bazet did a round-house kick to her back, managing to reach Kupriotes and take it out of my right hand. I could do nothing but jump back as I am not suicidal enough to face her in CQC (even though I am better at CQC than ranged combat). Knowing that if I continued to go at it like this I would lose sooner rather than later I decided to change things up.

Using my limited control over space I jumped as high as possible and created a mystical platform for me to stand in mid-air. I know that Bazet will reach here soon, but I don't need that long for what I planned.

Exchanging Hruting for my bow Gandiva I focused all energy I had in me on the next shot. Accumulating said energy I also used the Houyi archery technique to increment its power further, using every possible energy I have in my body to it.

Locking in her I saw that she was fixed in her place, no intention on running here right now.

I then shouted the name of the attack, releasing my most powerful single-person attack.

" **AGNI GANDIVA!** "

And thus the world exploded in flames.


	60. Chapter 55

Castiel P.O.V.

Ugh, has someone noted the plaque of the truck?

I feel that my ribs are not positioned right anymore and my head is exploding after spending so much mental and soul power in that last shot. Note to self, never use Houyi archery at full power unless I can make sure it will end. Fuck, how the hell did she destroy that arrow with one freaking punch? Is her real name Saitama?

Not only that but that attack barely scratched her gloves and she just followed it up by punching my ribs with her other hand. Yes, she defeated my most powerful piercing attack with just one not that serious punch. I can only thank God that Kuroko has not inherited her mother's monstrous strength.

"You improved, but you should try to improve your defense. Right now anyone could defeat you with one good punch." Yeah, anyone with your monstrous strength. And last time I checked there are not that many people in the world that are this crazy strong in the physical sense.

Gulping back the blood that tried to leave my mouth I did a respectful bow to her (even though I could feel my shattered ribs rubbing against my lungs all along) and said.

"Thanks for the spar, Bazet-sensei."

She nodded and left the field. Following that some of the other ran in to see how I was doing. I comforted the girls saying that I was fine, and I was right after Okuyasu's treatment. His sacred gear is too OP.

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

As Bazet left the field she saw the one person she did not want to see.

"Caren." She said, trying to not beat her up is harder than expected for her. The relationship between the two was 'thorny' to say the absolute least.

"What did you think of him?" Was what Caren said, looking at Castiel with down casted eyes.

"He has improved. The curses he used are very annoying now and the miasma blinded my field of vision. His movements also improved a bit thanks to purring more magic energy in his reinforcement and the fact that he reached such heights is something I am proud to see as one of his instructors." Bazet said, pride clear on her face.

Caren hearing that released a sigh of relief.

"If you say so I can be in peace." Caren said, which was answered by a glare from Bazet.

"You don't have the right to say such words! You still are in contact with THAT woman, and if it wasn't for that person he would already be many, many times stronger now." She said with a serious face. "He even had to suffer pain every time he used his magic while growing up. We had to see him bleed from all over his body and almost die many times while simply opening his magical circuits, see him train desperately to be capable of keeping up with the others, spend minute after minute in some training that even we think are suicidal all just to keep up. And it was all thanks to her."

Bazet then breathed for a while to calm down and said.

"You two are lucky that it was not me calling the shots or I would already have charged right there to demand explanations for my student long ago."

As Bazet finished her talks she left Caren there. After a while, Caren shocks her head and said.

"There is nothing we can do. If it was the right decision or not is not up to me or anyone else, all we could do is accept. I just hope that when the time comes there is no great upheaval and that things can be resolved peacefully, otherwise there will be war."

* * *

3 hours later

Castiel P.O.V.

After that 'spar' between me and Bazet finished we decided to eat lunch. The ones to make the meal were me and Allen as the others were incapable of boiling water right. Well, Yuno could cook well but I would not trust her to not try to add some 'extras' to Emily or one of the other girls' food.

She _is_ a bit mean after all. But I am sure she does not mean to cause true harm to anyone… surely… probably… possibly… doubtfully… yeah, it is best to not give her a chance.

Eating with a lot of people is always good, especially when you can see the happy faces of those you love smiling while eating your food. It was a truly great sight.

As we finished eating Yuno finished her research and we found that there is a grand total of 16 stray devils in town right now, we got their locations and expected next location as well. But that is not the important part. The important part is that we discovered what is the enemy forces for this mission, and that was not any good news.

There are 2 mid ultimate-class, 1 high ultimate-class, and one fucking mid super-class! How the hell are we even supposed to counter that? Is it even possible for us?

Sigh, we have no choice right now. We cannot expect more reinforcements and we have no idea about what their objectives are.

Thus, there is a limited amount of moves we can do as a frontal strike is simply impossible. After discussing with the others we decided to try and eliminate the two mid ultimate-class enemies first. They are the weaker link and defeating them limits what the enemy can do.

There is also one more information that we found out, one that is complicated, to say the least.

My father's disciple in forging, Valper Galilei is here too and working for the enemy.

When Lugh heard that I needed to activate the servant seal on her just to make sure that she wouldn't do anything stupid. She loved her adoptive father too much, to the point that she even allied herself with Iscari-fucking-ot to look for him. Hearing that he is nearby and that he is together with someone that may as well be a warmonger, well it was more than she could handle.

"Calm down Lugh. I understand that you are worried and I promise that I will do everything in my power to see your family reunited. But now is not the right time. The enemy is all together and facing that mid super-level is way beyond us (even if he is at the bottom of that class), all we can do is wait for the right chance." I said to her, managing to calm her down.

I left something unsaid though, that if he is with them with no good explanation and if he truly betrayed the Tower, I will kill him myself. It is my duty as the heir to the Tower to do such a thing, and if Lugh hates me for it afterward I will take her on as many times as she wants. It will be her right to want revenge then, and it will be my responsibility to bear as well.

But choosing to ignore this dreadful way of thinking we decided to go out hunting for those strays. I talked with Rias and Sona and we decided to separate into four groups and each one taking out four strays.

The groups are:

-Group 1: Me (leader), Tsubaki, Allen, Xenovia, Lugh, Serenity;

-Group 2: Emily (leader), Okuyasu, Miku, Issei, Irina, Caren;

-Group 3: Rias (leader), Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, Kaguya, Yuzuru;

-Group 4: Sona (leader), Saji, Momo, Tsubasa, Bazet (she is worth a full team by herself in my opinion);

In the end, we even went separate ways and left the rest of Sona's peerage back in my place together with Yuno as bodyguards while Yuno maintained constant watch over the city and informed us in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

I was advancing north, me and the others from the squad already eliminated 3 strays and we're going to the last one. I put Xenovia to do it as she clearly needed the most experience in handling Durandal. Whenever we found a stray I would ask the others to go surround it to make sure it would not run and then Xenovia would walk in and fight it. I would then observe with Gandiva in hands to the case she needed support and after the battle ended I would then talk to her to see what she felt during the battle, giving tips to her and everything else.

Now that we are approaching the last stray we are almost done for this part of town, and then it will be us trying to catch and defeat at least one of the ultimate-class enemies.

*CELLPHONE CALLING*

Huh, someone is calling me now? Weird. Let's see who it is… and it is Yuno.

"Yuno-chan, is everything okay?" I asked.

"Cas-kun you have to run RIGHT NOW!" Yuno yelled on the phone.

Huh, what is going on? Why would Yuno say such words?

While wondering that I turned to the others and said in an urgent tone.

"Return to the base! Return to the base now!"

And with that everyone turned and started to run, is what I would like to say but before we could react mist engulfed us and we were transported to a different space.

SHIT!

Are those idiotic warmongers here too?

Shit, I need to go. Before it is too late.

Too late to kill that moronic glasses asshole and if possible his whole fucking assholic gang as well.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

"Your sacred gear truly is impressive, Mr. Georg. It is just a shame that you don't want to work under my banner. Your abilities would see new heights under my rule." A haughty voice said to the magician in the room.

The magician was named Georg, the user of **Dimension Lost** a Longinus capable of manipulation space to the point that it can create separate dimensions and teleport himself or others to whatever place he wants. His sacred gear is the byproduct of Kuroko Fraga's **Yog'space** after removing most of the spirit of **Yog-Sothoph** and leaving just the power over space-time to it and letting the spirit and what was left of the space power to Kuroko's gear. There IS a good reason for balance breaker to Kuroko (and Yuno and Okuyasu since theirs would be much the same, especially Okuyasu) be almost impossible to achieve, the balance breaker of them would simply be outside of what God would ever allow humans to have and achieving them was just that much more difficult and need that much more stimulation.

Georg heard what the other being in the room said and gave a slight smile, even though he felt disgusted from the mere fact of being in the same space as a supernatural being, to breathe the same air as any of them polluting the air in his opinion. But now was not the time for him to act on his desires, he came here as a contracted help to the leader of this 'merry group' of fallen angels.

At least he got two good things from this partnership, one is the reward of 200 grams of holy ore (not of the 100% purity, but acceptable level nonetheless) so as to make a new holy sword for his comrade Sieg, and more importantly to screw over Castiel.

The last one was the bigger reward for him, he hated Castiel with a passion. Him and the rest of his group, the hero faction.

Turning to his contractor it took every fiber of his being to not throw up. Was God drunk when he made this particular angel or was he watching some weird vampire porn? No one will never know, but one thing is for certain, the fallen angel Kokabiel was NOT a pleasant sight.

"Kokabiel-sama, it was nothing much. All that you requested has been taken care off. I locked Castiel into a parallel dimension and brought to town your army. I also left half of them in the same dimension as Castiel to capture him and eliminate the others. Now it is time for you to give me my reward so as to me take my leave." George said. A smile on his face while imagining that eyesore dealing with so many fallen angels and seeing the others being hurt.

Kokabiel shocks his head and said.

"It is still too early. I need you to remain here to open the dimension for me when it is time to extract my prize." He said.

George knitted his eyebrows, he wanted nothing to do with what Kokabiel wanted and he trusted Kokabiel enough to know that on the first chance he got he will try to kill him and extract his sacred gear. Continuing working for him is dangerous, but leaving now is not really an option. If he leaves now he will not get anything. Plus, he is a 'hero' so how could he turn tail and run at the first problem?

"I understand Kokabiel-sama, but if I have to do anything further I will demand an appropriate reward." George said.

Kokabiel nodded, not really care about it. All he wanted was the excitement of war, and this was a decent prelude to the war he wants and will make with his own two hands.

Kokabiel looked around himself and smiled, his troops moving as he wanted and nothing out of his expectations happened. He sent his generals together with his troops to the three groups that were walking through town, and he only had now to sit back and wait for the good news.

Behind him an old man with white hair and monocles was looking at everything with an empty gaze, not showing any sort of emotion on it. He was here for his own objectives and he was close to them, but knowing that his adoptive daughter and the son of his master are facing danger put him way over the edge. But he did not show anything, he would not show it no matter what. His self-imposed mission depended on it.

* * *

On the west side of town, Emily and her group were facing considerable problems. They barely received a message from one of Sona's bishops named Reya that there were invaders and then they were face to face with one of the mid ultimate-class fallen and around 20high-class fallen. All of them with light spears pointed straight to them.

"Hello, worms, it is, not, nice meeting you. My name is Lucas, one of the three generals under Kokabiel-sama banner. I was sent here with the mission of fighting against you people, no hard feelings." The mid ultimate-class fallen said. He had waist length blond hair, green eyes and a constant smirk on his face. He and the other fallen were wearing a black armor covering their entire bodies, with only Lucas being the exception due to his face being shown.

Emily was thinking about how she should deal with this, and the one to take a step forward first was Caren.

"Hello to you too, fallen angel. *sigh* How troublesome. Your opponent for this fight shall be me." And with that, she took out a red veil that advanced towards Lucas at high speeds, but he managed to avoid it and said.

"Sorry, but my target is not you. I was ordered to first and foremost eliminate that stain from our glorious bloodline that is right there with you." After he said that he launched himself at extremely high speeds towards Emily.

Emily could not help but gulp a bit, hoping that this battle will help stimulate her magic core to start working. Otherwise, she would likely die.

* * *

On the eastern side, a similar situation was happening.

Rias, her peerage, and the twins were facing off against one mid ultimate class fallen and 15 high-class fallen angels.

Rias was using her powers with everything she got, but she could at the very most suppress 4 high-class fallen. And it was only because her PoD is very useful against them as it was capable of destroying the light they created very easily.

Akeno was facing off against 4 high-class fallen as well, the energy spent was extremely high but she started doing something she was adviced after the rating game and practiced with Koneko to better deal with enemies in CQC. As a queen depending only on magic was not the best way, and as such, she decided to learn and improve in other areas as well.

Koneko got closer to Kiba so as to fight together with him. His speed helped to deal with the fallen that tried to approach her while she plummeted the one ahead. The two were facing off against 5 fallen angels as well.

And the last two fallen, well let's just say that they should not have flown so high on the skies when the twins were fighting. They were barely an afterthought for the two that were fighting the mid ultimate-class fallen angel Nikos, but the two high-class fallen were still ripped apart by the chaotic winds that the twins were creating.

But the one feeling most miserable on this whole thing was the mid ultimate-class fallen angel. Why did no one warn him about these two? They might be just high high-class, but together with their bloodline and abilities in controlling the wind, they made him want to retreat to as far away from here.

How the hell did two teens could have reached such understandings of the laws of the wind? Wasn't it suppose to be only the fairy queen that controlled the natural laws?

Nikos could only pray that by the end of this fight he will not be fully plucked, he loved his wings after all. But, considering how things were going this was but a pipe dream as even survival for him was in doubt.

* * *

In the south Sona was also facing troubles.

She and her peerage were facing off against 9 high-class fallen angels. The fight was not going so well, but they could hold on and win if things continued this way. It was clear that their enemies were just like Rias was and most devils are, overly dependent in pure power and not controlling it properly. Thanks to that Sona and the others could face off against them well enough since even though their attack were weaker they were much more focused.

Plus Sona and her peerage received their customized mystic codes and they were doing wonders.

But the most important part was that from the ones that appeared here first 7 were already killed. Bazet did not even spend 5 seconds to do that before she started her fight against the high ultimate-class fallen angel named Maciel. The fight was in an impase, since Bazet was not capable of fighting in mid-air well enough to hunt him down and he doesn't dare to approach her.

Thus the fighting continued.

* * *

Kokabiel watched it all, and could only smile. His troops were fighting and all the blood being dropped was nothing more to him than a ritual sacrifice.

His allies and enemies bones being what will pave his way to the greatest excitement of the battlefield.

By his side George also watched and for him it was interesting, the only shame is that he had no popcorn to watch it happen.

He suddenly got a thought on his mind and asked Kokabiel.

"Kokabiel-sama, what can you tell me about their base of operations?" A foreboding feeling on the back of his head as he said it.

Kokabiel looked at him and said.

"There is nothing much, just three weak devils and a pink-haired human girl."

The foreboding feeling being crystallized, and George's back was covered in sweat.

"How many troops did you sent to eliminate them?" George said, urgency in his voice.

Kokabiel looked at him as if he was a fool and said.

"Plenty enough, I sent a grand total of 10 mid high-class fallen, 7 high high-class fallen and around 32 high mid-class fallen." The pride in Kokabiel's voice was clear to hear. The certainty of his troops victory on his mind.

But to Georg, who understood things better those words meant, it was nothing to feel good about.

To him, this only meant one thing.

KKKAAAAABBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

"GIVE ME MY CAS-KUN BACK!" A feminine yell rang throughout the whole building they were, and the energy of a low ultimate-class combatant surged with promises of murder, destruction, and death.

To Georg, it meant that one of the most fearsome young member of the Tower, the only one that his leader openly says he isn't fully sure of victory against and didn't want to fight against at all due to her specialities was coming here after him.

That Yuno Kuzuki was coming to kill him.

Suddenly, he started to wonder if he should have left when he had the chance.


	61. chapter 56

3° Person P.O.V.

BOOM!

SCHING!

CRASH!

CLANG

SMASH!

Sounds of fierce combat roared through the west side of Kuoh, caused by two sides of supernatural origin.

In one side 12 low high-class, 5 mid high-class, 3 high high-class and one mid ultimate-class fallen angels. On the other side, there was Emily, Okuyasu, Irina, Caren, Issei and Miku.

Things didn't look so hot for them, especially cause everywhere they looked they could see falling black feathers and Light spears of varying shapes and sizes raining down upon their asses. Emily spun and wove her threads throughout the battlefield, using a mix of intense acrobatics and aerial maneuvers to avoid the ranged attacks from her opponents. Several low-High class Fallen formed dual spears and flew down low to strike her in close combat from behind, but she saw them coming.

Her eyes narrowed as she channeled her light powers, forming a series of spears of her own, chucking them into the air. She grabbed two of them and parried on Falen's dual strike, kicking him in the nuts before throwing a right hook to his face, knocking him down to the ground. She quickly capitalized on her opponent's state by stabbing him through the shoulder with a Light Spear, before she took another one from those she had chucked and shoved them into another Fallen's neck, scissor-kicking him as she grabbed him by his wings and tossed him around into the third Fallen.

Grabbing the rest of the Spears, Emily juggled them between her and the Fallen Angels' attacks, twisting her body about like she did not have any bones in her body. She managed to hook a leg around a Fallen's neck, using this to slam the fallen into the ground while tying him up in her Threads. She then used him as one of those lassos that cowgirls used in America, swinging him into the approaching Light Spears of several of his comrades. His scream of pain as he was used as a fallen shield was quite pleasant to Emily's ears.

Afterward, the woman looked about and saw that the attack had bought her some time to catch her breath. Not much, but still, so with that, she let out a loud exhale.

Looking about, the woman had to admit to herself, as much as she hated to. This battle was not going well for her group, and especially for Emily herself. They were, despite her earlier actions, outnumbered and outranked since among them Issei and Irina are still not high-class level, thus raising the pressure on the others. Issei wanted to enter his balance breaker to finish off some of the enemies but Emily had stopped him.

"You can only keep that form for a few seconds so you got to make them count the most. For now, you got to focus on protecting yourself, Irina, and, most importantly, protect Miku." Was what Emily said.

At first glance those words sounded strange, but considering what Miku was doing right now she might as well be the most important person in this battlefield.

Magic circles surrounded her while Miku held herself as she was doing a standing recital at a music concert, and considering the nature of her actions, that may as well have been what she was doing. She was using her sound magic to buff her allies, making them recover from wounds faster, improving their magical energy recovery, and most importantly she also was raising all their base stats to at least one full level above what was before.

Thanks to her buffs Okuyasu could face off against 1 high high-class, 3 mid high-class and 4 low high-class by himself and still be just fine. He was even using his sacred gear to teleport all around and beat the shit out of those fallen angels, and even when he got hurt his wounds healed quickly due to Miku's healing songs.

Meanwhile, Emily was also doing her very best. She was facing off against most of the other fallen angels in there, just leaving 4 low high-class fallen to Issei and Irina and the mid ultimate-class to Caren that managed to imprison him when he had chosen to ignore her in favor of attacking Emily.

But the fact remained that they were in a race against time since the seal put on Lucas was not resistant enough to last more than a few minutes. Not only that but the pressure was getting stronger and stronger due to the fallen angels' unending energy that came from their magic cores.

This is the true terror of fighting an angel. Because fallen or not, they all have magical cores and, as such, never truly get exhausted. The only way to defeat them is to overwhelm them quickly, but that was not quite an option for Emily and Okuyasu due to how many enemies they were facing.

As the fighting continued Emily continued trying to activate her own magic core, but it was not going well. She could feel that it was just one tiny step away, just one little push and it would activate. But that little push just did not happen.

She was now using a super concentrated light thread to immobilize three of the low high-class fallen, but she could not find enough time to finish them off thanks to having to deal with the other five enemies fighting her.

She continuously flew in evasive manners that seemed to defy any physics laws so as to evade all the attacks.

PIERCE

Unfortunately, she was too overwhelmed and one of the light spears thrown at her pierced the side of her abdomen.

'That hurts!' Was the first thing she thought, the second, being when she looked at the mid high-class that threw the spear and that had a smile plastered on his face, was 'I WILL kill you!' and strangely enough the third was...

'I want to go home and sleep. And ice-cream, I can't forget the ice-cream.'

Yep, laziness at it's finest!

While this happened Issei and Irina were also having a tough time. The two only had reserves in the mid mid-class and, as such, were quite below the four low high-class fallen that were attacking them. Not only that but Irina's precious Excalibur Mimic was not nearly as useful against fallen angels as it was against stray devils which she was used to fighting against.

If it wasn't for Miku's sound barrier that appeared every time they were about to be injured they would probably be down already. Irina was capable of cutting off one of the fallen angels arms and take out the left eye from another one when she transformed her Excalibur into a whip. She tossed it forwards, watching as it wrapped around the eyeless Fallen's leg before she used a lot of physical strength to toss him into his comrade. She turned her Excalibur into a shield to block a Light Spear that would have impaled her in the head if it weren't for her weapon and the sound barrier.

Meanwhile, Issei did all he could, flipping about like his life depending on it to avoid fast Light Spears, attacks that made the strikes from Riser's peerage seem almost like turtle speeds in comparison, to stall for as much time as possible so as to charge his sacred gear. His hands became engulfed in the flames of his Little Boys before he managed to grasp onto an attacking Fallen by his arm, punching him in the face before kicking him in the nuts. Honestly, that notion had never felt so good. He then roundhouse kicked him in the head, knocking him to the ground before kicking the Fallen away from him. Issei tilted his head back to avoid a Light Spear inches away from his nose, before throwing himself on his back.

Too close, a second more and he would have a hole where he didn't want one.

Again, his moves were only possible due to the boost that Miku was giving him and Irina. Miku was even using some of her sound abilities to interfere on the ears from their opponents, as evident by the faint air waves entering their eardrums, blocking out all sound and thus making them incapable of coordinating properly.

Over to Okuyasu, a Fallen made the mistake of getting too close to him with a Light Spear strike poised for his head, only for Okuyasu to strike too fast for him to dodge in time and thus got his head blown out of existence. Okuyasu shoulder bashed the corpse, before weaving in and out of several Spears thrown at him from above.

Okuyasu was doing his very best. He managed to kill one of the mid high-class fallen by eliminating his head from existence while also wounding the other two mid high-class with some well-located punches. He now was trying to hurt or outright kill the high high-class fallen, but it was proving to be more difficult than he wanted due to the fallen being very attentive against his sacred gear.

As the battle heated one of the high high-class fallen that was hunting down Emily disengaged with her and turned to Irina. He had a separate mission, that is to steal the Excalibur Mimic. He shot a light spear at Irina with such power that it pierced the sound magic barrier Miku created like it was made of paper, and continued in Irina's direction.

Seeing his childhood friend about to be pierced by that fallen angel (not in a sexual way of course) Issei flew into a rage. He completely ignored Emily's orders and activated his balance breaker. With his armor boosting him he launched himself at extreme speeds towards the spear and managed to break it into a thousand pieces by punching it.

Seeing that Irina was fine he turned back to his enemy. He may have improved some more and now could keep this form for 20 seconds instead of the ten from before, but he only could keep it up for this time. He was going to make it count.

Opening his four wings Issei flew directly towards the fallen, he clenched his fists and started trading punches with his enemy. At the start the fallen did not care much due to his superiority in magic reserves and experience, but quickly that calmness was replaced with shock when Issei's punches started going faster and faster due to focusing all of his boosts in speed and physical strength, Issei sacred gear responding to his desire to beat the shit out of that asshole that wanted to hurt HIS childhood friend. He even started muttering something while punching.

"ora, ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora, Ora,

ORA!"

At the final shout, the punch was covered in an extremely fiery energy that managed to finish his enemy completely. The fallen was launched over 200 meters away, his jaw dislocated and with so many broken bones that it was more difficult to find bones that were still intact than the ones broken in at least 4 different spots. No one knows then if he lives or dies, but the fact that it is not in

Feeling that he was approaching his limit Issei calmed down and heard Emily shouting at him.

"Transfer energy to me! Quick!" She was surrounded in all sides since the low high-class fallen that she had managed to capture were released by the others.

Issei nodded and transferred what was left of the strength from his sacred gear to Emily. As he finished that he fell to the ground, completely exhausted and with his balance breaker dismissed. He saw the fighting continuing and that Irina was now having to protect not only Miku but him as well against the four low high-class fallen. The feeling of powerlessness was overwhelming, so much so that he wanted to do nothing more than stand up and go fight, but he was not strong enough for that.

Irina saw Issei's condition and clenched her teeth as well, she might have been surprised and sad that her friend was now a devil, but she cared about him nonetheless. And she admitted that him saving her from that light spear was quite ho… cool, yeah cool. It was simply cool, not hot and all that... was what she was saying to herself.

With Emily she now was having an easier time dealing with her opponents, she even managed to cut the head of two low high-class fallen. They really were lucky that the opponent was idiotic enough to spend thousands of years with not on thought about proper training.

Emily then got an idea, an idiotic one that might incapacitate her but was worth trying. She redirected all the energy from Issei's boost directly to her dormant magic more, she even pushed all the energy she herself had to that. She was going to open it, or else someone there just might die.

She wouldn't dare let the lives of her comrades be snuffed out by these assholes, she vowed that to herself. She may be a lazy snob most of the time (Cas can attest to this when she steals his food, specially his pudding, tee hee) but once the time came, she would be the 'queen' she would need to be.

BA-BUMP

Eyes widened as Emily hunched over, her hands clenching as her heart thumped strongly within the confines of her ribcage. Her energy shot out of her like an explosion,, roaring like a dragon's fiery breath becoming an inferno. Rippling waves of power coursed through the air, creating a power field around her that blocked any and all attempts to get close to her. One foolish Fallen tried to do so and discovered this when the field violently pushed him backward, sending him spiraling to the ground so fast that, had he be a normal human, he would have been a bloody stain on the ground upon impact.

'I... Must, go! Even, further... BEYOND!' Emily thought to herself, gritting her teeth as she tried to dig deep into herself, pumping her energy and that of Issei's Boosted Gear into herself.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Emily began to scream, her eyes shaking while her hair flailed wildly around her thanks to the waves generated by the power field. Sparks of holy energy danced around her form, growing more and more volatile by the second. Her voice, mid scream, even started to sound like it had an echo behind it as she focused her power, her power flaring dangerously around her.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Throughout the battlefield, everyone gasped (including the enemy) as they easy got a 'spark' that told their senses a new power was coming into being, and they would be right there next to it.

Air began getting sucked in towards her form like a vortex, her energy drawing it like a magnet. Below her, a circle of dust spiraled on the ground while everything around her began to shake, her energy crackling through the vicinity.

All the while, Emily kept screaming as she focused on her task, not even noticing everything that was going on around her anymore.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Below Emily, waves of dust expanded outwards, cracks spreading across the ground while everything began to tremble in a violent manner, just like what would happen if it were at the epicenter of a high scale earthquake.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH -

Yet, she still kept going, her head hanging low which allowed her bangs to shadow her eyes. All the while, her power kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, affecting the surroundings at a gradual but fast pace.

* * *

While the ground cracked around the battlefield, spreading all the way to the other sides of the city, on her side Rias could only gasp in shock as she sensed an overwhelming surge of power saturating the air. She knew the signature too, that Fallen Angel/human Hybrid that was with Castiel. 'This... is unreal! How the hell cans he be generating this much power...?!' she thought with extreme shock, sweating profusely while her Queen was in the same boat as her. Arguably more so as she felt the levels of power roaring from her fellow Hybrid in ruthless, unrelenting waves. The power that could have been hers too, the power that she rejected.

'This... can it really be...?!'

* * *

Back to Emily, her screaming only got louder and louder, yet every octave that got raised meant that the effects her power generated were getting stronger as well. Several nearby buildings lost large chunks of themselves before being forcefully tilted to their sides, some smaller ones even being obliterated entirely. At this point, it looked like the very earth trembled at the surge of power she was generating, like she was the very source of one of the strongest Earthquakes in human history.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH -"

At this point, her muscles began screaming in protest, her body assaulted with aches and pains coming from her efforts. Yet, Emily didn't care as she pushed her power further and further, using the boosted Gear's energy to fuel her own. From her back, her wings began emitting furious sparks of power, looking like they were pulsating wit her chaotic energy.

The waves pushing away from her grew in intensity, becoming physically capable of hurting those that were on the ground at this point which forced the others to one knees individually.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH(growl, grunt) -"

That last, final scream tore from her throat and threatened to make her lungs burst apart. Her head was thrown back to the heavens as the power field around her erupted into a fierce wave that blew everything around her far away. Only her comrades would have been spared thanks to have dug their heels into the ground to anchor them. Yet it would be worth it. Within her body, the magic core finally activated. Her energy exploded and her wings shined for an instant. Before she could react a searing pain invaded her back, almost like it was being ripped apart, healed, and ripped apart again. The higher her energy grew the more the pain surged. In the end, when she could barely handle the pain anymore, it stopped.

And from her back, her original six wings grew much more resplendent and beautiful. Their dark color in them now lost the gray tint it had to reach the purest darkness of a moonless night, the size increase and they even started to release a dark light that gave her a mysterious allure. Looking down at herself, Emily panted heavily and hard, her throat mildly sore from all that screaming. Yet, she couldn't help the grin that spread across her lips and made her enemies want to run for the hills.

Finally...

She'd done it.

She advanced to high high-class.

* * *

In the eastern side of the city, another battle was happening. Rias and her peerage were dealing with many fallen angels as well, the results of their training being shown clearly to all. But if there was to be said one reason for them to be winning their fights it would be due to being used to fighting on the ground in contrast to the fallen angels that always preferred flying.

But, why don't they try to fly? The answer is simple, the lords of the sky right now was not them but the pair of fairies of the wind.

The twins were using the wind as if it was second nature, anyone that tried to fly was doomed unless they were clearly strong enough to deal with the wind they were controlling. In this field, the only one that could stand up to them was Nikos, one of Kokabiel's generals and a mid ultimate-class fallen.

He was one of the elites brought up by Kokabiel-sama and raised after the great war, he learned from his master the fact that the fallen angels were the destined ones and that they would rise to the top of the world during this future great war. He and the troops all learned that while growing up under Kokabiel-sama, and he was always praised as the best in-flight capacity by Kokabiel-sama.

Unfortunately, this 'advantage' of his might as well be thrown in the garbage when facing the two fairies.

The twins may not be quite as powerful as Nikos(not by a long shot, the difference in energy was at least 20 times) but they knew about the wind element way better than him. When he tried to move east a west wind that could topple 10 houses appeared and impacted him if he tried following that wind it would change course and send him way to high before a descending wind came about and impacted him.

Fighting these two was no different than fighting mother nature itself, and wining against it was harder than most can possibly imagine.

Fortunately for him, it was not like he was an lamb waiting for slaughter. He launched many light spears towards the two, and when the spear approached thetarget it would divide into many smaller spears to anfluence a much greater area. Kaguya and Yuzuru managed to evade most, redirect many, but in the end there were just too many spears and the two were wounded in many places.

Luckily there was not one terrifying injury and this amount was far from fazing them, the two were far too used to 'turbulency' so to say. The fighting between the two sides continued balanced, but this was not made to last. The three knew that it would not be good for this to go on any longer, Nikos nedded to go back to his master side in case he needed while the twins were woried about their fiancee. He might act tough most f the time but they knew that his magic reserves were very limited and that he could not fly properly, facing an army of fallen angels may hurt him or worse. This worse was what the two could not and would not allow.

He was the one that managed to take the two out of the infinite boredom that was the fairy realm, the place where everyone looked at them with either reverence to their bloodline or with annoyance due to their way of talking. If it wasn't for him they probably would still be there, locked in a perfect and forever unchanging paradise were nothing happened and the two would just be the grandchildren of the fairy queen instead of Kaguya an Yuzuru.

The two looked at each other, resolution on their faces. They would end this the way the way they liked, with a showy and extreme bang.

"Decisive. Let's finish this." Yuzuru said with unnatural seriousness to her voice.

"Hahaha, you are going to fall under the infinite power of this great fairy that controls the world with my left hand!" Kaguya said, in a clearly delusional fashion. She was truly too full of energy and craziness in practically all situations.

Nikos saw this and could feel that it was the closing act of this fight. And he preferred it this way. He knew that in absolute power he would win 10 out of 10 and that his reserves were still largely superior compared to his opponents. He would win this, was what he was thinking.

The two sides then prepared their ultimate attacks, Nikos focussed his energy in the creation of a giant pike made out of pure light energy. The energy vibrations existing on it were enough to kill multiple high-class enemies at once. He might be considered the weakest among Kokabiel-sama generals in striking power, but this ought to be enough to deal with these two.

Meanwhile, Yuzuru held Kaguya right hand with her left one. The two were side by side and the energy that they interchanged between one another was increasing exponentially to the point that differentiating what energy belong to who became impossible. This connection not only elevated their energies to being comparable to the weakest of the ultimate-class but it also allowed for them to use their strongest attack. Each of them took their free hand outward and a hurricane appeared on it.

Their sizes originally small to the point that it fits on the palm of their hands grew larger and larger, to the point that it reached almost a hundred meters in size each. The strangest thing, however, was that even though the two tornados were of such proportions they did not interfere or touch one another.

As the two sides completed their preparations everyone in the field could not help but look up, their faces full of worry and awe from the power they were seeing. The difference in rank between the high-class and the ultimate-class being shown clearly with this, the fact that an attack from such class could destroy a whole city and still have a surplus of energy. The shock was especially great for Akeno when she saw the power that the twins showed, how the mastery the two had over the wind could allow for them to jump ranks and challenge those that were so much stronger in the pure energy department that once she prided herself in.

And then the two sides attacked.

The spear of light flew true to the target, the aim clearly directing in exterminating the two fairies. The fairies did not care, they dropped their hands at the exact same time and the two tornados finally intersected, rolling across one another like a giant drill of pure wind that nothing could stop. Cleavin Wind was the name of the attack.

The impact between both sides was so intense that even those on the ground felt their bodies tremble and the noise so loud that it broke down the windows from many houses.

And the final result was clear to see, the twins fell to the ground. They could not move a single muscle anymore and felt pained all around, using that attack was still too much for them. BUT, even in that condition, they were better off then Nikos who now could be seen splattered around a huge area. The body of the once proud fallen angel now was taken away, piece by bloody piece, by the wind.


	62. chapter 57

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, ain't that a shitty development.

Not only I am locked in that glasses fucker (that I dream of gutting every once in a while) mist space, I also am facing a freaking army of enemies. No kidding there, it is like a fucking army here. There are dozens of mid-class fallen angels from all levels, over 50 low high-class, 45 mid high-class, 30 high high-class and 10 fucking low ultimate-class fallen angels.

And the 'best' part? They all are fucking flying and I suck at fighting flying opponents. In my team, most can't fly at all so we are being reduced to defending most of the time. The only ones being directly helpful are me using my Gandiva (thank God for my training with the Houyi technique, otherwise I would not be capable of even hitting them most of the time), and Lugh by the use of her Hrotti control over gravity. It was therapeutic to see those cocky fallen angels fall from the sky face first. Lugh didn't even need to finish them off, Serenity eliminated anyone that even approached the ground level before he could even react.

Seeing some of them dying instantly before they could even see who attacked them, not even the flash of the weapon, made me realize one thing… all girls around me are scary. The only exception being Miku, but considering how her father has sent me a letter saying that he will kill me if I even look at her, the terror I feel towards her is no lesser.

*sigh* This is my life, huh.

Evading a light spear I decided that enough was enough. I turned to Allen and yelled, since the sound of explosions and fighting was all around.

"Allen, can you defend me for a few seconds?" I didn't have even the time to explain what I am going to do, evading one fallen angel that had the 'brilliant' idea of trying to spear me from up close took priority. The fact that I evaded him, took him by the neck, devoured part of his energy and then threw him towards some of the light spears that were flying towards me making him being as dead as possible, all of that barely computed in my mind. My mind was too full of imagining what my next actions should be.

I will NOT let any of them die.

Allen was quite busy too, his sacred gear (he told me that the name was **Crow Clown** , weird naming for such a powerful gear) was being used to help defend Tsubaki and Xenovia. The two girls had close to zero powerful ranged attacks and the ones they had would hardly be useful against such enemies, even their defenses were not that good against the fallen (Xenovia is human so her flesh can't take a light spear and Tsubaki was a devil thus light is like a poison to her), thankfully Allen gear was great for defense and offense separately.

Hearing my shout Allen nodded and I ran towards him, his gear had a limited range and he could not reach my current location.

While I was running I changed weapons as many light spears were launched at me, the ground all around was being destroyed and if it wasn't in an alternate space the number of civilian causalities would be astronomical.

I expanded my defensive field to my maximums, using it to evade all light spears and the ones I couldn't I cleaved in half by using Hruting. I would have to depend on it and my new spirit bone if I want to live through all of this, the capacity of recovering energy from killing my enemies was simply too important right now and even if I am risking going berserker it is a risk worth taking.

When I was close to Allen one of the high high-class fallen appeared before me. He had a cocky smile on his face and had a light spear in his hand, clearly intending to stop me here and kill me off. Unfortunately for him, he made a grave mistake, he was now on the ground level with his back turned to three enemies.

When he opened his mouth to talk (gloat his superiority I bet) three things happened simultaneously: a giant blue sword pierced him through the stomach, a naginata shaped mystic code pierced his left lung, and a black claw punctured his head and neck. The three attackers showed no remorse or hesitation on taking advantage of the situation presented to them.

When that fallen fell to the ground I could only say that I pitied him. I mean, to be so brain-dead as to show his back towards his enemies like that he must have been dropped head-first when he was a baby.

Ignoring the bleeding corpse of the moron I approached Allen and gave him a nod before sitting down on the ground. I deactivated my field and left him to cover for me, I need my full power and concentration if I want this next action to work.

Allen continued what he was doing previously, using the cape part of his sacred gear to protect everyone from any light spears while launching holy blast through the claws of his gear. Xenovia probably wants to help and she could launch some powerful holy blasts through her sword, but they would spend too much energy and this is a battle against large numbers so being spent is counterproductive.

If I had to say, the only luck we have right now is that the fallen angels are cocky enough to their strongest not even bothering participating, so no ultimate-class is among those fighting right now and most of the high high-class isn't either.

Ignoring all those thoughts I started focusing. I connected myself to my curses energy; it is a strange feeling, almost like I am falling inside a dark sea made of ink and evil but that doesn't try to hurt me at all. It is the contrary from when I am researching for a new blessing, in that case, I usually fly higher and higher in a yellow sky that gives a light and blessed feeling. But, for as strange as it may sound, both give me the feeling like I belong, like if all the power, energy and knowledge there was supposed to be mine from the moment I was born.

Going deeper than I normally would ever be capable of (since I broke through to high-class I became capable of going deeper) I start to try and formulate a new curse. It is a new feeling since they normally all come naturally, but surprisingly enough the curse I wanted was very easy to create, almost like all this evil energy and knowledge was a part of me from the start.

Now that I know the curse I start executing it, the energy drain is immense, to say the least, but I had devoured the energy from quite a few fallen angels just now so I barely had the necessary amount for what I desired to do.

Pointing my hand to the sky, the center of my hand displayed a strange dark light and when I looked at the sky I shouted the name of this new curse I created.

" **True Evil Techniques: Belphegor!** "

And with that the light I created pulsed, covering everyone in the whole town, no damage was made to anyone, no pain, no suffering, nothing except one thing…

Everyone that before could fly, now fell to the ground.

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

Georg was not having a good time, not at all.

He was having to face off against Yuno, the genius daughter of Caster and one of the top talents from the young generation. He was having to depend heavily on his sacred gear to create a mist shield that transported all the attacks aimed at him somewhere else, and he could not relax for even one second since Yuno was releasing her magic attacks at him.

Her attacks were always strange, while most would look at them and not see what was powerful about them since they barely released any energy vibrations Georg knew the truth, she somehow managed to create an attack that controlled the 'death' to a big extent. She was an expert on instant-death attacks.

While the attacks don't seem to be that powerful at first glance, especially when they end up hitting a non-organic object, it was when it actually enters in contact with something that can be called alive that it shows its worth. Anything it touches dies, the only way to survive is to be considerably stronger than the magic used, and even then there will be damage. It doesn't matter if the attack hits a mortal area, or if it hits a non-lethal area or even if it just grazes, all that those became equally deadly on her hands.

Even other magic attacks 'died' to it as well. If there was one saving grace it is that the attack is relatively slow, thus possible to dodge. But considering that her sacred gear can predict her opponents every move for her even dodging becomes nearly impossible.

That was the reason why CaoCao, Georg's boss, didn't like the idea of fighting against her. She might be weaker than him overall but the risk of death against her was simply too big. That, and because he wanted her as his woman, which did not sit well with either her or her fiancée (especially with Castiel, last time they met the two almost ripped each other piece by piece, and only failed to maul each other due to external factors).

Georg tried to launch a mist wave towards Yuno to teleport her to a closed of space, but she knew the attack was coming even before it arrived. She jumped to the side, avoiding the attack by only a thread of distance, before using her scepter to launch even more death rays at him.

It infuriated Georg, he was a genius in magic, being capable of using Norse magic, angelic magic, black magic, white magic, devil magic, demonic magic, fairy magic and magecraft, he also had a top-tier sacred gear that gave him an extreme control over space and the power to possibly destroy the world. But even then he was not capable of prevailing against Yuno, her knowledge in magic may be much more limited but her capacity of using the death related magic was an unfair advantage.

If for Georg the fighting was irritating, for Yuno it was infuriating. She did not like fighting, she wasn't even interested in this whole town or country was annihilated or if all devils and the like died. All she wanted was one thing, and one thing only.

"GIVE ME MY CAS-KUN BACK!"

And with that shout, the number of death rays raised exponentially, and the desire to away from Georg raised just as much. While he was creating many magic circles from all sorts of schools of magic and launching all sorts of magic attack at Yuno, she just continued launching her death rays.

'Enough, I am not being paid nearly enough for this shit!' was what Georg felt when he failed to defend properly and one of Yuno's attacks went way to close to his body for comfort. Kokabiel had left long ago because 'I will grant you the chance to prove your worth'. Fucking lazy bastard, was what Georg will describe him from that day forward.

Even though he was not paid in full yet, Georg decided to leave this town and get away from this crazy chick. Wrapping himself in his mist sacred gear he started to disappear, Yuno tried to stop it but her attacks were useless against that mist.

'Well,' Georg thought 'at least I managed to screw up with Castiel and he will probably fall, the only shame is that it won't be us killing him'.

After the mist dispersed Yuno no longer had a target, she then turned around to leave the building but was stumped by what she saw. All the building was covered in mist on the outside, blocking her way out. She knew that this was only temporary, she had dealt with him before and understood his sacred gear well enough to know that one 'field' created in a hurry would not last long.

But for Yuno each second counts, how could she be calm if Castiel is wounded and she is not there? Or worse, if he calls for her and she is locked here? Wouldn't that mean that she was ignoring her responsibilities as his future wife?

In that situation she looked at the outside and had two thoughts, the first being a prayer to whoever can listen to protect her beloved, and the second that she would skin Georg alive the next chance she got (don't doubt her, she always carries with her a carving knife as she is a woman ready for all situations after all; Castiel must be so happy to have someone like her by his side).

* * *

On Emily's side, the battle was heating up. After Emily reached high high-class her powers jumped, especially since her magic core was activated. This was the first time she activated it and it was a hard journey, to say the least.

Normally when a fallen angel descendant is born the parent is the one that activates the core but since her father was an 'immature asshole', according to her, it did not happen then. Not only that but the stronger the core is the harder it is to kick-start it, and hers was strong. According to the people from the Tower, it was easily comparable to her own father, possibly stronger, and her father is the strongest fallen angel.

Now that her core was activated Emily could feel unlimited reserves of power in her, she wanted nothing more than going celebrate it with her friends since she finally reached it after secretly trying to activate it since she was 10. She didn't even try to raise her energy that much simply to put even more focus on controlling her energy and open the core.

Looking up she saw the reason why she could not go celebrate, the many fallen angels that were trying to kill her and the others.

Her eyes narrowed, she saw that the others were not in a condition to fight anymore. Issei was down to the count for the next few minutes due to using his unstable balance breaker; Irina was tired and full of scratches from defending Miku and Issei; Miku was running out of magic power since she was expending it like crazy since the start of the fight by focussing in so many areas at once; and Okuyasu was holding on, but even though he managed to kill the high high-class fallen he was fighting against he was weakened considerably as well.

It was in Emily's hands now to finish this fight before there were casualties on her side, and most importantly before the seal that Caren is using on the leader of the enemies was released. If they were still fighting against these fallen when that happens they will die.

Taking a deep breath Emily took to the skies. All the other fallen angels decided to eliminate her due to her being the biggest threat and the 'greatest achievement' (they were a militaristic bunch and killing someone like her would be well seen in Kokabiel-sama's eyes) and tried to attack all at once. The problem was that they could not communicate at all so their attacks mostly ended up hitting one another, making the number of attacks that actually hit her be comparatively much smaller.

She looked to the side while still going up, ignoring those slow ass attacks. She was not hit by any of them, such was her speed after opening her magic core, she now had energy enough to constantly keep herself in her maximum amount of Reinforcement and not feel any drop in her energy. Her speed was such that if she pushed even a bit more she would have broken the speed of sound, but considering how that would be counter-productive due to Miku's magic invigorating her further Emily chose not to go that far.

After flying higher than any of the fallen she looked down at all of them, taking slight pleasure in how they had to look up to see her. However, that pleasure was turned into rage when she saw how some of the fallen were taking the chance to look under her skirt.

Rage took over her mind, how DARE them to look there when not even hi... no one looked at her there (yet)! She would not forgive them AT FUCKING ALL.

Clasping her hands together she started circulating her magic energy from one hand to the other to the level that her hands were being separated by the raw energy being used.

Seeing that all the fallen took to the skies, they would kill her before she did anything that might be dangerous and for that, all of them clasped their light spears and threw themselves at her.

Too little too late.

Before they even covered half of the distance Emily finished preparing her attack.

A hail of diamond shaped light energy constructs was launched at extreme speeds towards her enemies. It was like she was releasing a rain of pure death since all those attacks perforated all defenses that those fallen angels desperately tried to create. No matter what they did, or how they tried to escape those diamond-like light attacks pierced them all the same, such as the concentrated energy that each one of those jewels had.

As Emily looked at this scene a small smile appeared on her face as she decided then and there what will be the name of this attack at that point on.

" **Diamon Splash!** "

* * *

On the south side of the city, a fierce battle was happening... or better saying used to happen. Now there was only one side in there, with one frustrated Bazet sitting on a bench and pouting a bit.

She was irritated since the high ultimate-class fallen that she was fighting ran away like a little bitch after she managed to take out one of his arms and slap him with it. And he was such a good punching bag to relieve her stress over the fact that Caren was in the town.

While Bazet was feeling down for losing her punching bag, and after she killed every single one of the fallen angels that were attacking Sona's group, Sona and her peerage members were all shaking. Not out of exhaustion (even though they were quite tired from fighting all these enemies at once), but out of sheer fear.

Seeing a well-dressed woman punch through someone else's body with one hand, repeat the process with the other, and decide that disengage the hand from the STILL LIVING bodies of her enemies would be too much of a hassle so she simply beat all the others using the two still attached fallen angels, seeing that made all of them get a whole new level of respect for Castiel.

To be trained by someone this violent since he was a kid, and still be relatively normal after that? He even was in sort of a relationship with the only daughter of this woman, so Sona and her crew made a mental note:

'He got balls of steel!'

And internally, in her more sarcastic side, Sona got to stifle a laugh when she thought of how her queen may need to train harder her inner tights if Castiel's 'balls' were anything to go by.

"Let's go, we must look for the others." Bazet said after reigning in her emotions. Sona agreed, she knew that she needed to go and help the others and the first group that she would do that was Rias' as who knows how they are doing.

* * *

In the western side of town, Rias and her peerage were in quite a pinch. Not only they were facing off against many fallen angels they also had to protect the twins since the two were too tired to do anything.

Akeno was launching many thunder attacks, trying to stimulate what she managed to understand of the thunder law to control the thunder element in the air, but it was hard due to she not being that well versed on the element yet. Not only that but the memory of the power that she felt being released by her fellow fallen angel-hybrid made her mind wander, and no matter how much she tried to ignore it the curiosity and desire for more power so as to help her friends was just getting stronger in her.

Koneko was facing her own problems too. She was serving as a 'wall' for her friends, taking and redirecting many hits that should have reached them. She was using her Yokai instincts to jump all around so as to defend her friends, but the more time passed the more she was getting tired.

Kiba, on the other hand, was simply not thinking of anything anymore, entering a special state of mind that could not be sought after and could only happen spontaneously where the only thing on it was his sword and the battle around him. Finding the best way to kill his enemy, how to better use the sword in his hand and new ways to move. All of that was what was occupying Kiba's mind as he entered this particular state, his sword techniques were improving by the second and if he survived he would have reached a whole new level with his sword techniques.

The key being IF he survived, in this state nothing mattered much to him, not even his own body. A fact proved by how his body was getting full of cuts that he could normally have evaded but simply did not do it. All that mattered was the sword on his hand and his body was unimportant to him at that point in time.

Rias was seeing this while she too was fighting with everything she had. Multiple clusters of PoD were circulating all around her as she launched them at her enemies, she was showing, now more than ever, why she was considered one of the top talents from the underworld (even though she was quite a distance to someone like Raiser and especially Sairaorg). Her power ran rampant throughout the battlefield, destroying any enemy attack that got too close and wounding any unlucky enough to get in the way of her powers.

But, as the battle progressed things were not looking good for her. She was having to spend simply too much power in defending her peerage from all of these attacks and they needed help. And if help didn't arrive in time, then it would be all over for her.


	63. Message for the haters

**This is NOT a chapter. I am only here to say something.**

 **I am aware that many people dislike this story, and even if it infuriates me it is on your right to make a bad review. Anyone that ever looked at my review sections will have seen plenty of those, and despite thinking that if someone dislikes a story they should just ignore it instead of spending time trying to feel better by making others feel bad while hiding like cowards by refusing to create an account and talk to me directly, just throwing insults instead of talking like NORMAL HUMAN BEING,** **this is NOT the reason why I am posting here. I just wanted to ask the haters, that believe themselves in the right to tell me that I suck while they themselves never tried to do even a tenth of what I am doing, to NOT HATE THE OTHER REVIEWERS.**

 **I've just checked the review section and an user called Kronos108 went out of his way not to only offend my fic but to offend other reviewer for liking it. And he still made it so that I can't send him an direct answer for that. So, as a well adjusted person, I will request of those who take some form of sadistic pleasure in tormenting someone who is trying to write something in here to NOT force YOUR views on others.**

 **This is a pathetic form of action that is worthy of contempt and nothing more.**

 **I am sorry if this offended anyone that wasn't involved and if you expected a new chapter I also apologize, but I simply could not let this form of action go without also raising my voice. I am a regular person here, and when I see BS I call BS.**

 **I hope I can find everyone in good health and thanks for reading Heroic Heir in DxD.**


	64. Chapter 58

Castiel POV

Okay, If I were some saint (which thank GOD I am not) I would call this a trial, but in this case, I can only say that it is just pure plain shitty as fuck bad luck. The type that my old sort-of-a friend Komaeda Nagito has. The one that I would rather throw in the trash

I mean, I am facing quite the problem, a Fallen Angel problem at that.

We were now forced into combat with a large amount of Fallen. Close to 100 Fallen Angels were staring at us and reading to engage us in close combat.

Right now, that thief of a woman (A.K.A. Lugh) was engaged with about 25 Fallen Angels all of high high-class, and all are taking their distance to shot her from afar but she still seems to be handling it well enough.

Xenovia and Allen, showcasing considerable teamwork (which means Xenovia trusting him to guard her back as she hacks at whatever moves), were back to back facing a group of 30 Fallen Angels.

The remaining 50 Fallen were focusing more on Tsubaki and Serenity, both of whom looked like they were about to go on a killing spree. Mostly Serenity, seeing how there already are quite a few fallen angels trembling on the ground as their skin were turning purple.

Women were scary, I knew this first hand. And why is it that the scariest usually are attracted to me? An image of one crazy bitch using her Longinus as she ran behind me appeared in my mind, and I could only shiver at that memory. That is one Longinus user that want me dead, badly.

As for me right now? I was doing okay... if facing 10 low Ultimate-Class fallen angels by myself was okay.

Joy.

* * *

Lugh POV

I always hate fighting in battles like these, when the odds were so overwhelmingly against me, but today I'll be making an exception.

These 5 ground Fallen took to me in close combat, using the range of their Spears to try ad get a close shot in while keeping some distance between us. Fortunately for me, I had my beloved **Crocear Mors** on hand, which would be a huge help in limiting their movements so I can deliver the killing bow.

Unfortunately for me, those damn distant Fallen would be a bit of an annoyance, distracting me so their brethren could get in lucky shots. It's like having to deal with a pincer assault on the battlefield, only in this case I would be on my own considering hoe each of us had been split apart from each other.

Unfortunately for them though, I had the sacred Treasure known as **Hermes Sandals** on my feet.

They let me vanish in a burst of speed, blurring through my opposition while slashing several times at 3 of the 5 ground Fallen. All of them got pinned to the ground once my sword's effect got activated, allowing me to throw a simple mystic code (that I may or may not have 'borrowed' from the Tower arsenal) like a Boomerang to slice through their throats with ninja-like precision (there's a reason why I trained to dodge assassination attacks, and that reason was Yuno after getting her a fake picture of a naked Castiel [it was actually from CaoCao as he paid me to do so by giving me some charged jewels]).

The weapon returned to my grasp just in time for me to store it and follow it up by pulling Crocear Mors to block the swing of another ground Fallen, my trusty sword blocking his light Spear. Because of the hurry, I was in defending against this guy, I couldn't use the sword's effect, meaning I had to break this stalemate pronto.

We broke the deadlock, and I sensed Light energy behind me so I used **Hermes Sandals** to sidestep the Light Spear and twisted around to face the attacker while the Light Spear impaled the one she had been fighting. I use Crocear Mors' ability, and the final Fallen angel around me, who had tried to launch that sneak attack earlier, looked like he was being pinned by a bunch of weights on his shoulders. A small smirk formed on my lips, but I quickly had to use **Hermes Sandals** like my life depended on it when a barrage of Light Spears came my way. By the time I could stop, each and every remaining Fallen had gotten back up with grimaces on their faces and were prepping some Energy attacks for me.

Quicker than most could ever hope to react, I switch out Crocear Mors for **Hroti** and use its ability to deflect the attacks away from my position. The blade's edges meet the sides of each Light Spear that would have hit me otherwise, and they get sent propelling into the other Spears, resulting in the entire area around me going up in smoke.

Now this could be a plus or a minus for me, considering A: I'm not at risk of getting hit by Light Spears from afar thanks to this smoke clouding my enemies' visions...

But B: This means they can launch sneak attacks on me without me realising until the very last second.

Like this one Light Spear coming at me from behind.

Faster than lightning, I swing **Hroti** and deflect it, before getting an Idea. My **Hermes Sandals** help me run fast, so what would happen if I spun around with their effect activated?

Only one way to find out.

Twisting on one foot, I activate its sandal and enter a VERY rapid spin, becoming a humanoid tornado that sucked in every spec of dust around me. The tornado felt like something those annoying Twins, the chunni one and the robot one, but it did the job of pulling my enemies into the Tornado... straight within my reach.

Using the spinning for momentum. I jump towards my opponents while adding Mana to my Legs for extra jumping power. Spinning about, I slashed and slashed when I got close enough to an enemy, caring deep wounds across their forms while sometimes even scoring a few limb decapitations. Their blood never stained me, that was the proof of my skill with a blade as I reached the apex of my jump, looking down to see about the Fallen Angels on the ground, groaning. I couldn't help but smirk as my plan had gone without much of a hitch before I then realized something which made me frown.

Why is there one missing?

Turns out, the answer soon came right behind me in the form of a vicious dropkick to my back, electing a gasp of surprise and pain from my lips as I got sent speeding towards the ground in an, ironically, similar position I'd been in when I jumped up. Fortunately, I managed to regain myself and shift so that I land on the ground in a kneeling position, and the last Fallen still standing was in the air with a bunch of Light Spears all around him, an absolutely livid expression on his features.

I think I can understand what Castiel means when he sometimes says 'fuck my life'...

* * *

Xenovia POV

Never had I been more grateful that I had a teammate on my side than right now, surrounded by all sides by deadly adversaries that could skewer me if I were alone.

I hold my Durandal in my hands while adopting a defensive stance, I would have used my Excalibur for this battle... but that was before I met Castiel and got defeated by that sword he wields, Clarent. Normally, I would be hesitant on using this since my control over the blade isn't as good as I would have liked, but in this situation, it had to be done.

However, Allen Sempai compensates for this entirely.

When the Fallen threw dozens upon dozens of Light Spears down at us, his Sacred Gear responded to his will and manifested. From his cowl, came a dozen light Tendrils that grabbed the weapons in mid-air by their shafts, hurling them back at the enemy with equal velocity. Each Fallen Angel cried out at the reversal of that strike, most of them managing to dodge but about 15 of them weren't so lucky. Because of how close they flew together, that allowed the reversal to catch as many as it did.

Seriously, I respect Allen Sempai.

He's one of our best for a reason.

As the Fallen angels fell to the ground, I rush forth with Durandal at the ready.

"Xenovia, watch out!"

However, Allen calls out to me just seconds before another Fallen recover and angles himself so that he was launching himself towards me instead, Light Spears in both hands so he could strike faster. Thanks to his warning, I am able to react in time and swing Durandal in a reverse diagonal upward swing. The force of this Holy Sword is great, it is on par with that strange sword Castiel owns. However, unlike me, he has better control over it even though the sword, in his words, can be 'an annoying and too full of itself at pretty much all times and mostly useless'. (Blasphemous, how can he call such a holy sword like that annoying? God should have smitten him for that offense)

Though, I can't say I don't understand his views either, not when I wield this one that listens to me whenever IT feels like it. It is like trying to convince a child to do his homework alone with a TV in the room, sometimes it works but most of the time it totally ignores me to do its own thing.

Thus, when Durandal slams into the enemy's light Spear, I feel the force explode from the blade as it's strength forces the Fallen to be sent flying into a nearby building. The power this blade holds is much greater than any sacred Excalibur fragment, even I have to admit this.

"Good job, Durandal..."

I whisper that to my blade before I raise it to block the kick of another Fallen. 2 more rush at me from the sides, only for Allen Senpai to dash past them and slice them through with his claw. He twirls around and launches many Tendrils, impaling them several times over to finish them off.

"Xenovia, focus! You can't get too far from me or you'll be picked off!" Senpai scolds, and I nod in resolution.

"Right!"

I still am lacking quite a bit. I can only thank God for leaving sister Griselda back in Rome as, otherwise, she would hit me for doing something reckless, again.

* * *

Serenity POV

I... I'm not good with other people just yet, not when I have a risk of killing them with a mere touch...

But, but right now I don't care.

Not when I'm surrounded by people I'm supposed to kill.

These Fallen, they would dare to take away my happiness, they dare to think about taking away the last reason I have for living again.

That cannot be allowed to happen, no way, no way, no way.

Thus, they will die by my hand.

Clutching my Dagger, I break into a Sprint, keeping my upper body low to maximize the speed I could go. I somewhat hear the voice of the female that obviously wants masters genes (not that I don't understand this wish) behind me, but I don't care.

All I see are the Light Spears coming towards me. However, unlike a certain brute of a woman that steals from my master every once in a while, I had other ways to protect myself. I quickly flip about, doing various twists and spins to avoid getting hit and making myself look like a parkour expert (not that any of them have anything on me). I land on all fours, before rolling to the side and jumping into the air.

I then hurl a hidden Dagger from within my outfit at a Fallen which impales him in the wing, getting a gasp from him as I jump towards him. I plant both my feet into his face, sending him sliding along the ground while retrieving my dagger at the same time, my hand briefly touching his skin which allowed my poison to take its effect.

The familiar sight of them dying horribly comes to my eyes, but this time I do not care. Not when I have someone whom can help me live a normal life now. Not when I must do it for my place in the world.

These guys tried to take that from me.

They must, no, they WILL die.

Using the momentum from before, I flip through the arm, landing on another Fallen's back. I cut his throat with one Dagger before hopping off him and not caring about his fate. I see several Light Sears being flung at me in the next second, but with expert grace and agility, I use them as stepping stones to get to the next Fallen.

This time, I clench a fist, wanting to deliver more of a beat down as I punch the Fallen right in the nose. I may not have much physical power, but that does not matter to me. Not when I'm protecting my chance at happiness.

As the Fallen falls to the ground, look to the other Fallen still far from me. They believe that this distance will make them safe from my poison and wrath.

I am the one who merged with the Assassin of Hassan, and these fools will regret making me angry.

* * *

Tsubaki POV

Whoever this girl is, she is someone who I do NOT want to mess with.

She is running all around leaving enemy corpses everywhere. I have to admit, this girl has guts.

Twirling my Naginata in my hands, I deflect a Light Spear thrown at me from my left flank and turn to see a Fallen already trying to strike me with another. I block the initial strike, before kicking him back and spinning into a slash to his face which he catches in his Spear.

The two of us trade several blows before we both back off, several Light Spears flying by us which my partner uses as stepping stones to get to the opposite side, kicking a Fallen in the face before wrapping her legs around him and plummeting them both down to the ground with an audible THUD.

Using this distraction as an opportunity, I launch a highly concentrated water blast at my opponent, something that catches him off guard and sends him screaming to a few meters back with probably quite a few broken bones.

I quickly erect a Barrier which blocks several Light Spears showering me from my left flank, the cause being about 5 Fallen who were already readying another volley.

Unfurling my wings, I narrow my eyes at them as I took off to face them.

I realized that, even though flying is impossible due to Castiel (he is so awesome) magic, it still remains possible to use my wings to launch myself faster and raise my momentum.

When their Spears come down at me, I bat them away with my Naginata, each swing rapid and blurry thanks to the years of training I spent with it while growing up to be 'perfect'. As I continued to use my Naginata to deflect the attacks I take advantage of my proximity to one of the fallen to accelerate even further by the use of a rune I put on the sole of my shoes. When he was within reach he tried to stab me directly with his weapon, but I could see it coming miles away, evading his strike I grabbed his face with my hand before slamming him with all my strength to the ground.

The cracks created by it were wonderful.

I make to shoot a Water Blast from a Magic Circle at one Fallen on my left, but another one came at me from my blind spot, slamming his Spear into my head with the blunt force of a hammer. I couldn't help but a cough and cry out at this, being thrown to the ground at this attack.

I felt several light spears trying to pierce my back, but my clothing is also a mystic code that helps to mitigate the light energy and my body is extremely resistant due to my queen piece.

As soon as I recovered my mobility I tried to 'fly' away from there, but one of those fallen pierced one of my wings when I opened them.

It hurts.

Hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts,

IT HURTS SO MUCH!

The wings are the most sensitive part of any devil or angel, and one of my wings were pierced and by light element no less.

Holding back the tears of pain I threw myself ahead with even more energy than before, my wing ripped thanks to that attack.

I will not let them have the taste of knowing they are beating me! I will show everyone that I can still win, that I am strong.

Blindly rushing in wasn't a smart move.

As Sona Sama's Queen, I understood this.

But even when while I am raising my Naginata and reading myself to face this fight that I honestly don't know if I can even survive, even now that pain is cursing throw my whole body from the injury to my wing, even though I am resolved to win by myself right here and now, I cannot help but wonder if I will too be saved like some of the girls from Castiel harem were.

How romantic would that be?

Haah~~, I must be hallucinating from this pain already.

* * *

Castiel POV

My group were also working better than I'd expected, Xenovia teaming up with Allen (seriously that Sacred Gear of his is broken, I swear) was a wise move considering they were both from the same Church thus knew each other's tactics.

Lugh is wreaking havoc as expected, Serenity is a killing machine right now as nothing can survive even one full second against her (and she is such a meek girl most of the time).

But Tsubaki needs help, urgently so.

If I could I would rush there right now and save her, but unfortunately, it is beyond my current capacity as I have my hands full.

I'm facing about 10 low-Ultimate Class Fallen right now, and it is not going as well as I would have hoped. I was covering my whole body in Gandr flames, was using a lot of my blessings ( **Greater Hardening, Indomitable spirit, Warrior Blessing, Strengthening Perception, Agility Boost, Haste, Flow Acceleration** ), and am also using Hroting all to beat these fuckers.

I am stronger than them individually, especially since I can use my right arm spirit bone to drain their energies, but even then I know that this will not go anywhere the way things are going.

My only hope is for this to continue for long enough for the effect of Hroting to show itself, making my body strong enough to handle them. I still don't know the exact limit of where I can take the curse now before it is too dangerous but it seems to have risen quite a lot as the cursed mark on the blade and me are close to 30% now and I am still holding on.

But, I must tell it again. My luck sucks royally sucks.

My eyes widened exponentially as a huge pillar of DREAD forms in my stomach.

No...

No, no, no!

Shit, this is bad, really fucking bad!

"Stand down soldiers. I want to play now."

"Sir!"

A new voice, carrying in it untold power as well as a matching level of arrogance that would even have Hades or CaoCao appear like not much (and the two like to explain in full details how superior they are in all aspects to everyone that want and don't want to listen), echo through the air as a Magic Circle appeared behind the Fallen.

From that Circle, appeared the ONE Fallen I KNEW I had no chance of beating as I am now. I could launch everything I have on me right now, spend every possible resource and skill while he doesn't even fight back, and I still would lose 100 out of 100.

He appeared on a large throne-like structure, his wings black like a crow's unlike the darkness of Emily's, but larger to accommodate his size. His hair was bushy and reached his shoulders with elven ear and yellow slitted eyes with a crimson sclera. He wore a large robe befitting of royalty (the self-centered prick probably stole it from someone more worthy of using it, like, I don't know, anyone else in this world) while underneath I could see a business suit with a V-shaped cut on the chest to expose the shirt and torso beneath.

Yet, despite that, I feel the energy coming off him in waves, coursing through the area like a living, beating heart pumping blood throughout the body. It was massive in such way that comparing myself to him is like comparing a glass of water to an ocean. There is no comparison in any way, shape, or form.

It was an energy that could crush me if he exercised even 1% of it, this was the enemy that I must face right now.

Those slitted eyes bore down on me, a sinister smirk twisting on his lips as he eyed me hungrily.

"Yes, Lord Kokabiel!"

All those Ultimate class Fallen nodded in acceptance of their leader's orders, and together with the still living fallen angels they all took flight and a respectful distance from us all

Guys... you better make it out of this alive. I will do what I can, no I WILL make you guys get out of this alive and well.

Me getting out alive, however, is a different story.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT!**

 **I am so happy with all the support I received these last few days that I can't even describe. You, readers, are awesome, and I mean it.**

 **Now, I also fixed an old mistake I made that was in chapter 36 in that I posted the wrong chapter there. I don't know how I haven't seen that glaring mistake before but I fixed it already so if anyone wants to take a look you are more than welcome.**


	65. Chapter 59

Castiel P.O.V.

It is a fun fact, an interesting experience even, how before while being surrounded by these people (Lugh, Serenity, Allen, Xenovia, and Tsubaki) I could feel that we would win, that even fighting against so many enemies at once we would still win in the end.

Now, facing just one enemy, I'm now thinking the complete opposite, a complete 180. In essence, I can only think that we are on some deep shit. Why? Because we are fighting fucking Kokabiel, a fallen angel that managed to face-off against God and live to tell the tale. My palms wouldn't stop shaking, my forehead got riddled with sweat, and I will not admit this to anyone but I had difficulty controlling my breathing when facing this guy. My heart thundered from within my chest, pounding away at my rib-cage like a prisoner banging against their cell. Just his presence is enough to pressure us, like any of his movements can kill us all with no problems, especially since we are already quite weak from all this fighting we had.

It is terrifying, but the most terrifying fact for me is that there would be a huge chance that the others get hurt and die on my watch. THAT is the thing that frightens me to no end, more than anything I could ever feel towards this opponent. Though I hesitate to call him such as that implied that we would be able to fight him. It is my job to make sure they are okay. It is my responsibility to do that as the leader of this group, no matter the sacrifice. Yet, even so, every leader has often wondered if their efforts would be enough if their efforts would allow them to pull through in the end.

I know that feeling all too well as I was simply too lacking on natural talent to get strong enough, and I was feeling the weight of my failure on getting strong enough now more than ever.

Kokabiel gazed down at us with a smug smirk on his elfish face (actually wait, no I take that back, this guy looks way worse, and it would insult elves), like he believes from the bottom of his heart that we are worms beneath his boots. The worst part was, that in all seriousness he had a right to think so. Since, to him, who'd faced opponents way stronger than us, for longer than us by dozens of centuries, seeing us attempting to fight him would be like some sick joke. Something that I have ZERO doubt he found amusement in.

He then opened his mouth and spoke, showing his rather sharp looking fangs which almost glinted in the night skies, like daggers that could pierce through both my flesh and that of those under me, sending chills down my very bones. "Go ahead, plan it out, get prepared, do all you possibly can. If you do you just might entertain me." he stated, an arrogant sneer coming out of his mouth afterward. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't think we are any sort of threat to him, and honestly, we are not. It would be foolish to think otherwise, as well as arrogant and stupid. Any leader who underestimates their opponent usually gets a brutal and humiliating thrashing they would never forget

But, even so, if he wants to give us a 'chance', well, don't mind us if we take advantage of that.

I turned to the others to see their condition, and I must say that most of them are fucked up. All of them are full of little cuts and wounds, their energy was quite spent and they all look exhausted. The best one is probably Lugh since I can see the scratches and buts on her body closing with my naked eye (probably a treasure she stole somewhere is responsible for it), but the worse one is Tsubaki.

Her energy is nearly fully spent, and there is some holy power harming her body even now.

I can't let her fight like this.

Taking a few steps I approached her, she looks at me with a determined but still pained face. I stop in front of her and start to look at where the light energy in her is the strongest, putting my left hand there I activate my Spirit Bone to begin devouring that energy. The place in question was on the small of her back, I caught her in an embrace so as to activate a blessing on her. Normally I can only use blessings at full power on myself, but if I am this close to someone else I can use it on them as well.

She started to struggle a bit, nothing much or even forceful, but I need her to calm down. She must wait until I finish what I can do to her, it is necessary for her well-being. I will not let someone under me get hurt or die. I will not. "Stop struggling. Leave it all to me." I said quietly, focusing as much as I could on using my healing blessing ( **Angel Embrace** ). Note to self, if I survive this, start training in healing magic and possibly white magic. I know that there are many around me who can use it, but it still is a necessary skill and there are never too many healers in a group as the more the higher the survival rate.

After I said those words to her she stopped struggling quite quickly, I even needed to put some more force in my arms due to her leaving all her body weight on me. She is probably very tired. As 10 seconds passed the spell was completed and the internal damage to her was healed, but her wing still is beyond me. She will need someone like Okuyasu to look at it if she wants to recover.

I turned to the others and made some calculations on my head, the best way for us to win this would be using Tsubaki sacred gear **Mirror Alice,** as it can reflect one attack back to the attacker with twice the power, but considering how weak she is right now I doubt she can even activate the gear to a state where it could hold a candle to any one of Kokabiel's attacks. There are few, very few options here. And the best move I can do right now is this.

CHOP

Before Tsubaki could react I gave her a chop on the back of her neck, making her pass out. The others look surprised by my actions, but, strangely enough, the only one that saw what I did and seemed to understand me immediately was Kokabiel. I then held her body and walked toward Allen, his sacred gear being the best chance she will have of staying alive. If she remained fighting on her state she would only get in the way and wound herself further, what I did was closer to an emergency treatment instead of fully healing her.

I will not let them die.

"Please keep her safe. I am counting on you Allen." I said, even though it pains me a bit to let something that should have been my job to another person I must use the best person for the job. As Allen nodded I turned to the others and said. "I will make an opening, take it and run from here. We cannot beat him, but I will do all I can to stop him for as long as possible." I said resolutely.

The reaction from the others was not pleasant. Xenovia looked like she disagreed with me completely and would refuse to listen, Lugh looked at me quietly and I could feel that she too did not want to do as I said but would follow it anyway as she had her mission to find her adopted father, Allen was troubled as he wanted to help but by putting Tsubaki in his arms he was bounded to go and save her first as he is just that type of guy (I could understand that well enough after spending some time with him, he is the type that worried about others more than himself).

And Serenity, well, she just complete and utherly ignored my words and positioned herself at my side.

I wanted to tell her to not be stupid, that there isn't a need for her to sacrifice herself at all and that I would take care of this, but before I could.

"I am getting bored, 20 more seconds."

I took a deep breath, the best next move to make sure the others can get away safely, what would it be?

.

.

.

Oh, this might work somehow.

"I declare, here and now, with all the fallen angels here as my witnesses that I want to make a bet with Kokabiel-sama." I said, wanting to throw up on my mouth for calling this asshole anything positive. Normally challenging him in this situation may or may not work, this is how easy and difficult to deal with warmonger narcissistic assholes are, but thanks to challenging him with all his subordinates as witnesses he is much more likely to listen to my challenge or risk losing some of his reputation among his troops.

Old people are much more connected to this honor and name crap after all. I can understand since I must uphold and be mindful of my actions to the Tower, but caring too much is a weakness as well.

Case in point: "Hoh, and what is it you want to bet?" Kokabiel queried, amusement in his voice as he leaned his head to the side while resting it on his closed fist.

I needed to hide my smirk at it, these sort of guys are just so predictive. "It is simple, I will try one attack, my most powerful one, and if I can injure you in any way you let the others go." I replied. If I am lucky I can hurt him somewhat, and if not I will at least make an opening for the others.

He looks amused, the others look worried and seem to want to say something but with one hard look they shut up. This is MY responsibility, I will do it myself and if shit hits the fan I will do what I can to help them.

"Sure, but what will you give me in exchange when I win?" He asked. This would probably be the harder thing for me to accomplish since someone like Kokabiel would want something pretty big from me in exchange. However, I would have to go the extra mile, if I wanted this idea of mine to work, though it didn't mean I would have to like it.

With those thoughts in mind, I could only give a pained smile and stated probably the most damning thing I could have ever said in this situation. "Anything." And I meant it. In the end, this is a world where power is the most important, and, in this situation, he is the most powerful so he makes the rules.

He looked at me with wide eyes, then a smirk appeared on his face, that smirk was growing and growing and before long… "Ha, haha, hahahahahahahahahahahaha" He started maniacally laughing like he heard the funniest joke ever. The others looked at the two of us horrified, refusing to believe their ears as what I said IS quite outrageous. I ignored their stares, I know that I am being as stupid as possible but from all those studies I did, all that training has always been for one reason, to be the best heir to the Tower possible, to deserve that, and to me if I can't save those under me I will disgrace my title. It would disgrace the Tower and my teachers, and I will NEVER allow that.

After laughing his haughty ass off Kokabiel still smiling in a sadistic fashion spoke further, intense amusement in his tone. "Sure, I was here after you anyway. I wanted to do a little experiment, but if you want to make it this way I won't mind. I decided that I want you to come with me with no struggle, the others can do whatever they want. Why should I care about worms anyway?" He said. "Oh, but I do want something in exchange for agreeing to this, the Excalibur Destruction."

Xenovia twitched and looked about to deny his request… order, but Allen was faster. He stretched part of his sacred gear aiming it at Xenovia's back and wrapped it around the hilt of Excalibur Destruction that was on her back. With one pull he took it off her and send it flying with all strength straight towards Kokabiel's face, but he simply lifted his hand and caught it from mid-air as if it was natural.

Obviously, this didn't sit well with the blunette brute, who turned on her colleague with a furious expression on her face as she stomped over to him."Why the HELL did you do that, Allen-sempai?! The Excalibur is a precious item from the church, so how could you-"

However, Allen had a response already prepared, as if he had anticipated what her reaction would be. "Because we have no choice. We cannot beat him, and if we resist now we will lose our lives meaninglessly while he still will get the Excalibur." He said, a clear unwillingness on his face, but he also knows that life is more important than some item that can be obtained again later. My respect for him is only growing, he truly is how good exorcists should be like.

Kokabiel smiled, probably pleased with himself as he said. "It is good that there is more of you that understand your inferiority. The strong rules, such is the law of the battlefield and this barely counts as one. Ok, go ahead and prepare yourself, if you can injure me I will let them leave."

Well, that relieves me more than expected. At least there is a chance of the others to leave, but if I lose who knows if he will really leave them? I will do what I can to not depend on his 'mercy', and what happens to me next will be based on luck. Nodding to Kokabiel I took a step forward, reaching out for the one sword that I know can help me right now. Hruting would be good, but it didn't spill enough blood for this, Gandiva is strong too but it still is not quite there yet, and Kupriotes is just out of question.

Receiving an acceptance from the blade I took it out, it seems that this one approved of my decision. However, while I did this, there was still something else I needed to do first. Something quite goddamn important if I do say so myself. Before I started the attack, I turned my head to face Xenovia who was looking at me intensely. When I open my mouth, my following words held more power and weight to them than anything that I had said before. "Exorcist, look well for this is the power that a TRUE holy blade possess." It may be just some whimsical thought of mine, but I want her to understand why I look down so much on those Excalibur fragments and what she is missing with Durandal.

Taking a stance with my sword pointing up I started purring all the power I had left on it. It is the first time I am using this attack after reaching high-class and the power is much stronger than before, many times greater and as it was being amplified by this sword it increased many times over. As it grew higher and higher Kokabiel showed some surprise on his face, and dare I say expectations as well, but it doesn't matter.

It is not enough, it is far from enough, I look deep into myself, searching for a blessing, anything that could help me win this. As I visualized myself flying higher and higher into that golden sky I started creating a blessing, one that is more akin to a curse but that would work for what I want. After completing it I could not help but smile wryly, a faint chuckle escaping me. If I survive this, I so am going to be berated by Rin for creating this Blessing. Heck, probably the others in the Tower will do just the same, but then again it will be worth it... if I survive that is.

" **True Holly Techniques: Sacrifice**."

When I activated this technique my powers exploded exponentially, I could feel the ground beneath my feet cracking and dust rising as the sacred and blessed energy overwhelmed from inside myself increasing at every second. The power should be intoxicating, but it is not.

It is pain.

It hurts so much that it against any rational being to use this skill. It really is as the name implies, it can only be used when I am protecting others and it transforms every possible energy I have dormant and even my very life in pure energy. It is like I am burning my very soul, like every fiber of my being is being burned, ripped and frozen at the exact same time.

It hurts, it hurts so much, just so much that I can't avoid thinking. Is it wrong to give up? Why must I do this for them? What does it matter if they die, it is better than this pain, right? RIGHT?

.

.

.

No... No... NO! I am Castiel Emyia, the heir to the Tower and son of Shiro Emiya! I promised myself that I will not let them die! I will protect them, and if this is the price to pay so be it! Who cares if I lose years of my life? Or this shitty pain? I will not let those under me die, no matter what happens I will not let them die on my watch! Raising the sword while hearing the sound of my bones cracking under this pressure, the energy almost cracking my arms apart, I put all my power into this strike.

" **CLARENT!** "

And the sword fall, the energy launched in a gigantic arc of power that can destroy anything.

.

.

.

.

And it was batted away with one swing of Kokabiel's hand.

Just like that, all the emotion and everything else in me suddenly vanished, leaving this cold, empty void like feeling in my stomach. Clarent had its tip embedded into the ground, as a sense of utter disbelief and defeat instantly overcame me.

Ha, haha, hahahahaha, it is even funny.

How even when I put every last bit of my power in this one attack, how even though I put all I had on this, it was still not enough to even make him need to properly defend himself. How pathetic is that? I couldn't help the bitter laugh that escapes me. Was this, really it? Was this all I had, all that I managed to get after years training so much? Was this all that I amounted to? No, I couldn't be, it just couldn't! All my training, all the struggling and hardships I had to endure. The times when I nearly died during the 'training' my father's exes gave me, the personal training I took myself to get past this funk I've found myself in, the faith that Uncle Zelretch gave me. Was this, not being able to protect my subordinates, the culmination of my efforts? The extent of my power?

Disgust didn't even BEGIN to describe how I feel right now.

At least, the energy gave the others the opening to run away. That was something I desperately tried to use to cover up how utterly weak and pathetic I feel right now. Looking around the are, I can't see them around here anymore, probably escaped when the attacks light was on its max. Then again, I probably blew up a few veins on, well, everything, so maybe they are right by my side and I just can't see them.

Kokabiel looked at me with ridicule as he said. "Pathetic. Is this all you got? Honestly, I heard that you were promising, that you were strong among those your age, but if this was all I can only say that this new age of peace and prosperity made people weak. But don't worry, when I complete my plan a better world will be made. Full of war, fight, bloodshed, sorrow, and despair. Such perfect soil for the strong to be born, to stronger and stronger opponents to appear and for more and more challenges to me!" He said.

Yep, he is insane. At least the others are out of here, I don't want them to be anywhere near this one. He looked in the direction the others ran to, the opening he made that was stretching with time. Probably Georg left, or died (I hope for the second option) so the space we are in is getting undone with time.

Thinking for a while he stretched his hand, pointing to the direction they went and said. "Go, kill those weaklings and if you can't don't bother to come back." And as the fallen angel around him listened they all opened their wings, preparing to take flight.

The sight of such filled my stomach with utter dread, gradually filling me up inside like tap-water in a sink. No, no-no-no-no-no! Not like this, it can't end like this! This isn't how it was supposed to go, if I don't do something now then my comrades will die! I'll be a failure as the Tower's Heir! Yet, despite the signals my brain frantically sent to my body, it wouldn't respond. Not even a faint flicker of movement, which only served to heighten my fear and horror.

When they were just about to take of flight, however, Kokabiel felt something wet on his person. Curious as to what it was, he then looked at his hand again, noticing something that surprised him. "Wait." All the fallen stopped in mid-flight or in take-off position. None moving a single muscle, a truly well-trained army that listens to orders. Kokabiel looked at me again, giving me a sadistic smile as he spoke. "Look at that, you actually won our bet." Those words made my eyes widen as I notice the faint scratch on his hand. The cut seemed to be the size of a paper-cut with some silverish blood coming out, but by the words of the bet I made my task of cutting him DID succeed. That thought caused me some form of relief, though there was a bitterness to it, too. At least I know the pain *shudders at the memory* was not completely useless. "They can go, but you will come with me."

As he said that he took a few steps on my direction and was about to touch me when-

Serenity appeared from my back and tried to stab him.

It was a perfect move, I could not sense her at all and it took Kokabiel by surprise as well, if his eyes widening a bit was any indication. However, I knew that would be a useless endeavor, Serenity by no means held the same level of power that I did, she may be a good assassin, but pure power wasn't their specialty. Thus, I realized the outcome of her endeavor.

A second later, my thoughts rang true. It was simply not enough, not by a LONG shot, as Kokabiel simply stopped her by creating a light shield in front of him out of sheer instinct. The attack was stopped then and there, or so it would seem but Serenity was not done yet. She took advantage of her positioning and threw herself high in the air so as to appear above him and touch his face with her bare hands.

After that, she exploded in speed and came out more than 40 meters away from Kokabiel, who looked at all of this in amusement.

Moments passed, and it looked like her poison had no effect on him, much to her shock.

"Hoh, isn't you that interesting tool of Maxwell liked to brag about? The one that body's produced an extremely poisonous sub-stratus, and that could kill 'anyone' that touches it?" He smiled evilly at her and said. "Unfortunately for you, discarded tool, your poison is simply too weak. I was going to let you leave, but as you tried to kill me it is just fair that I do the same, right?"

Just as he said that, Serenity sensed danger above her, and when she looked up a series of Light Spears rained down upon her. Light Spears that Kokabiel himself generated above them just moments before she could touch his face. They didn't explode or anything upon contact, either, instead they just pinned Serenity to the ground back first, spreading her limbs out like a star. Screams filled the air, coming from the poison-filled girl while I struggled to get up.

However, this made Kokabiel chuckle as he made a simple hand gesture. This caused several other Fallen Angels to pin me down by dogpiling on top of me, pointing Spears at several vitals to stop me from doing anything, much to my horror.

A dark grin formed on Kokabiel's face at the sight, before he strode over to Serenity. I tried to speak using what little strength that I had, but one of the Fallen Angels whacked my head with enough force to send my head spinning, stopping me.

"Now then little lady, how about we get this punishment started? To begin, why don't you tell me this?" He began, taking one of her arms and pulling out the Spear binding it. He then turned it so that he could do what he would do next, a savage sneer forming on his lips. "What's 1000 minus 7?"

CRACK!

"KYYAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Kokabiel kneed her arm at the elbow with enough force to shatter it, making Serenity scream in pure agony as she tried to break free of her bonds. However, that didn't happen, neither did me breaking free from my own restraints thanks to my lack of strength. I struggled, oh how I struggled valiantly to break out, however it remained impossible for me.

That word made my stomach churn in disgust and self loathing.

"Heh, your screams are pretty nice, little lady. Perhaps I'll have you scream some more. Oh don't worry, I don't plan on KILLING you just yet. No, that comes later. To start off, which do you think would hurt most?" Kokabiel questioned, holding the damaged limb in one hand. "In my experiences, fatal injuries are too quick to have a painful death, they are meant to be 'fatal' after all. Which leaves non-fatal injuries like cuts or bruises. However, they aren't really suited to this situation, so how can we have the best of both worlds you may ask?"

Every word he spoke felt like a knife to my gut, and I swear I could hear some of the Fallen Angels above me chuckle sadistically like their leader did. Each one filled me with unspeakable rage and fear, yet I could do nothing but watch. Watch as one of my subordinates paid the price for my weakness.

"I know, how about this? We go for... the BONES?!" Kokabiel suggested, whispering that into Serenity's ear which prompted her eyes to bulge wide open, a new dose of fear filling her being. "I mean, that's pretty much the only logical solution at this point, it's an injury that forms great pain and can kill you depending on how they are broken. But one bone will not be enough, oh no, I always wondered how many are needed to kill someone. Why don't you help me find out first hand" He mused thoughtfully, before shrugging and giving a twisted smile. "Well then, lets get started. Begin counting from 1000 by 7's believe me it will be fun."

With that, Kokabiel began breaking the rest of the bones in Serenity's arm, starting with the fingers and thumb first. Serenity screamed, she outright screamed, howled and wailed in pure agony which, to me, felt like daggers piercing my soul each time. Once again, I try to speak, but I'm ignored and my mouth was muffled by a gloved hand.

By the time that Kokabiel had broken the hand's bones, Serenity has started counting backwards from 1000 by sevens, each number she called out with tears running down her eyes breaking my heart more and more... all the while intensifying my hatred for this asshole immensely.

He soon moved up the arm, breaking every bone that was in it and hadn't been shattered to pieces by his earlier kneeing. Each time he did, more screams were his reward, which only made his grin grow sharper. He even looked like he was humming, humming to the sound of an innocent girl's cries of pain, a sick thing to do in this situation. He then made his way down the side of her body, breaking every bone that he could find in her either either sharp jabs, punches, or stomps.

Poor Serenity couldn't stop crying as she desperately tried to keep herself sane by counting, the counting keeping her aware of what was going on. Like it was the only thing holding her sanity together, at the cost of feeling the pain in her body to a greater extent than normal. This would be one of the times where she wished her poison would have been stronger, her mind being so messed up by the pain that she thought things she wouldn't normally think about.

And all I could do... was watch.

Fucking. WATCH!

So many times I wrestled with the urge to just roar and scream profanity galore towards my enemy, he didn't even deserve my saying his name in my thoughts anymore. He just got that despicable in my eyes, yet thanks to my body being how it was I wouldn't be able to do even that. Frustrated the hell out of me, and hell, I could even feel a little dampness forming over my eyes hearing Serenity's tortured sounds.

Unable to help her, even after I promised her and what she went through as a child.

After a few short (read, almost AGONIZINGLY eternal) moments, Kokabiel wiped some sweat from his brow with his sleeve, a 'whew' sound escaping his lips whilst he looked down at the broken, shaking form of the green haired girl he had tortured. "Well, that actually made this whole farce much more entertaining." the monster remarked, chuckling to himself while his men laughed in agreement. I swear that I even felt that some of them even had boners pressing against me when this happened, making me want to throw up at how utterly disgusting these assholes were.

"Now then, since we're done here, It is time that we finish this." Kokabiel stated coldly, summoning a Light Spear the size of a single story building. Just by that action alone, one could guess what he would be doing next. "It was fun, I believe some of my more... artistic followers will make some songs from your screams girl. I shall enjoy listening to them while you rot in the depths of hell for DARING to think you could best a superior being."

Hearing that made all my anger and self-disgust melt away, replaced with cold hard terror. No, I couldn't allow that, no way, no how! Not when I had already failed her before! I will not allow her to die, not like this! I'll make it so that she survives this, and by the gods so help me she'll live! This I swear on the name of the Tower! In my panic, I refuse to think of anything else other than the most obvious thing to do that came to me. Something that would both grab Kokabiel's attention and save Serenity's life.

Fortunately, the Fallen Angels had removed their hands from my mouth in their moment of happiness, so I could speak up. "KOKABIEL-SAMA!" I shout, getting his head to turn in my direction. "What would cost for you to let her go?"

He stopped the spear when it was about to pierce Serenity's face, an thoughtful appearance on his face as he pondered. The smile he gave next made me REALLY wonder if God really created this one, I mean I know that all fallen are the definition of the 'black sheep from the family' but this is just too much. How can an 'angel' (fallen or not) show so much pointed teeth on his mouth while smiling? "You are right-handed right? I want your right arm, take it out."

So he wants my arm in exchange for her life. My arm in exchange for the life of a girl that I don't know for that long and tried to kill me more than once, that is responsible for the deaths of who knows how many others, a girl that could potentially cause more trouble for me in the future or cause a disaster and rip who knows how many people for pure accident.

Well, isn't the answer to this question obvious?

With no hesitation I nodded, the other fallen released me but I did not care. I pulled Kupriotes, the sword that wasn't being as effective for me as it used to, and thought it funny. Who would say that this would be the blade that would cut my own meat and bones?

SLICE

It should hurt, it should mean something as I see that arm, MY arm, fall to the ground.

But it didn't. My pain threshold was trespassed long ago, I don't even know anymore what is pain and what is not, it all became the same to me. The only thing moving me forward and stopping me from passing out is the determination of not letting Serenity die on my watch, that I would not fail someone who put their faith in me.

Kokabiel cackled at the sight, before grasping the arm and holding it up for his master to see. Myself on the other hand, I could only stare at it with no emotional attachment. If this is the price to save those under me, especially given how damaged Serenity was, then it would be cheaper than buying sweets at a convenience store. That was the last thing I would think for quite some time though, as my mind just shut down for not being able to handle so much at once. I could now only hope for the best, despite the soul-crushing sense of defeat roaring within me.

3° Person P.O.V.

Kokabiel looked at the fallen boy in front of him and could not help but give a mocking smile. The fool, he might have managed to run away if he abandoned the others but he insisted on doing this. He is an idiot. Taking him under his arm he cauterized the injury where the stump was, he had used for the boy anyway so he could not let him die just yet.

Serenity tried to stop it, stop the bastard to take away her master, the last good thing in the world to her, but she was just too weak. She tried to move, but half her side refused to let her, sending sharp spikes of pain that hindered any thought of mobility. It was like fate was saying 'sorry bitch, but your not gonna be protecting anything, so just stay put'. She could only look on, her eyes wide and tears of pure sorrow streaming down her features, as he was taken away with Kokabiel's followers trailing after him in a militaristic fashion that seemed quite close to those that the Nazis did during the parades.

In a corner not far away, someone was watching all of this. She was covered in another one of her treasures, one that she stole from Hades' treasury when she was 14, the treasure in question is the **mantle of the reaper** , a treasure capable of hiding someone completely except for the smell.

Then again, she was not fighting and managed to stay far away enough for there be no chance of others to detect her, she even used a clone doll (that one she stole from the fallen angels' lab in Grigory, a prototype for a possible sacred gear that could copy the user up to 20%) to help in her plan to stay hidden there. She was waiting for the best chance to help her friend/master, but the next few words from Kokabiel completely erased her decision and even memories of Castiel situation from her mind. "Now I must go see Galilei, the new sword is waiting!"

And that was all that Lugh needed to decide to follow him to his base, she would save her father first and foremost no matter what.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Sorry for taking a bit longer to post this chapter. I had to work more on it as it was not easy to put it down right and I wanted to make it as good as possible.**

 **Also, I must thank HunterXKiller87 for helping me on this chapter, we are working on a little project and he still has his own stories to work with but he still got the time to help me put this one together, he truly is a great friend of mine.**

 **Anyway, I just wanted to make something clear. Those classes I put on the story means a whole lot more the higher you go, one person on the super-class is easily capable of killing one thousand of those of the ultimate-class, the abyss between the two levels is simply too big. And the abyss between the Leader-class and other classes is even larger, one Leader-class alone could match up to 10000 super-class warriors. The difference in levels is just that great, and the deterrent power of a Leader-class warrior is just that big. So, Castiel's decision to just obey Kokabiel instead of fighting him was due to knowing that survival would be hard if they all thought as they were, tired and surrounded. It was the best option, and let's be fair here Castiel is Shiro's son, of course he too would have his streak of being a 'suicidal idiot' despite he not desiring to admit it at all.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **Bye**


	66. Chapter 60

3° person P.O.V.

On the eastern side of Kuoh, the battle was reaching the max. Rias and her group were under absurd amounts of pressure due to the fallen angels' attacks, and they were doing all they could just to stay alive. The most damaged was Kiba, his state of mind was making him do more and riskier attacks that completely ignored any form of defense in exchange of defeating his opponents. His sword techniques more and more exquisite and deadly, to the point that if he (that was mid-class) had to face one mid high-class alone he would probably win, but if the number of attacks raining down on him continued he would die.

Rias saw this and got more and more worried, she was releasing many clusters of PoD so as to destroy all the light lances she could, but the sheer number was still too much. She knew that it was necessary that something changed, and fast, or it could all go down to hell.

As she thought that, a water dragon surged from around the corner and caught one of the mid high-class unprepared, crushing him instantly. His blood dripping on the streets.

With a large and relieved smile Rias turned to the one that came to help her, and someone she knew all too well.

"Sona, thanks for the help!" And that was what marked the start of the counter-attack. Sona and her group arrival could not have been more timely, with them here things completely turned to the devils' side. Demonic power and spells flew about and overwhelmed the fallen that were used to be on the attacking side. Due to the fall of pressure Kiba's state of mind was calming down, and unfortunately for him, it ended. But again, his body had already gone beyond his limits many times over so continuing might have crippled him.

As the fallen were getting desperate a sound transmission echoed on the town.

"This is an order, go back to the base maggots. I already have what I wanted here."

Hearing this, the fallen angels that were about to be defeated revealed an expression of relief as if they were pardoned. They immediately took off, not even bothering to give a second glance to those behind.

Seeing this Rias and Sona chose not to pursue them. The fallen angels were known for their speed in the air and going after them is mostly useless, especially since they still have full energy capacity due to the magic core in their bodies.

Sighing with tiredness Rias turned to Sona to express her thanks, but before that.

FLASH

A surge of light energy ripped around town from the west side of Kuoh, the direction was from where they felt Emily's power earlier. As they felt that everyone got really worried, and wondered what exactly happened over there.

A few minutes earlier

In the western side of Kuoh, things were finally calming down. After dealing with all the fallen there Emily flew to Okuyasu's side to see if he was fine. He was the most tires one here (she now had unlimited magic power supply, after all, cougars to the cheat-like magic core) as he defeated many of those in here and tied down the others, but in the end he was facing too many at once and even if the boost from Miku was impressive he still was injured.

As Emily looked at him over and used structural grasping (a magecraft skill that allows for understanding things structures) she saw that there were many wounds in him. He had three broken and four fractured ribs, his organs were mostly all wounded in a place or another, muscles overworked and many cuts all around him making him be on a state of mild anemia due to blood loss.

In other words, not a pretty state.

Realizing that she took out a Phoenix Tear and gave it to him, he was the one that should be prioritized now since his sacred gear could heal the others just as well as a Phoenix Tear and they had a limited amount of those.

After the medicine made effect she said.

"How are you holding up, Okuyasu?"

He turned to her with a pained smile and said.

"Still sore as fuck, but I won't be a little bitch and say I can't move. I can still fight." At that last part, he looked at the mid ultimate-class fallen that looked about to get out of his restraints. He felt that things were just the calm before the storm, that he needed to use his all for this next fight, but Emily shocks her head.

"No, you go and heal the others now. You and they are too tired, I will take care of this as much as possible. With this amount of unending energy, I probably will be able to handle him for as long as needed, so you go and help them." Emily said in a commanding fashion. Hearing this Okuyasu unwillingly nodded, as he WAS too tired and fighting more in this condition is inviting a 'slip-up', and those can get people killed.

Seeing that Emily looked at the others, Issei was finally standing up, probably he managed to recuperate his energy somewhat but still was in no condition to fight; Miku was dead tired and sprang in the floor due to how much energy she had to use to maintain so many magic at once; the most tired, however, was without a doubt Irina as she had to defend Issei and Miku for quite a while alone.

Sighing Emily knew that she had to send them as far away from there as possible, maybe ask them to get reinforcements or something. She could handle and tie down this mid ultimate-class (Lucas is his name, if she remembers right), but defeating one alone will be a bet at best.

Taking a deep breath, she readied herself for this fight, pumping as much mana as her body could take in reinforcement so as to prepare for this battle.

Not even ten seconds later the seal that Caren was holding over Lucas was broken, letting him leave for as far away from that (in his own words in the future) 'crazy exorcist bitch'. He decided that he wants nothing to do with her, it is better to keep his distance or he just might be locked again.

As he looked around he could not help but show some displeasure for his troops were exterminated while he could do jack-shit, he better does something to make up for it and fast or when Kokabiel-sama sees him he will die no questions asked.

Emily, seeing him fly high, also took flight so as to not let him have the position advantage. She showed just a minute ago how the position can influence the way a fight can go and she will not let him have the initiative.

As the two reached over 300 meters in the air they looked at each other, recognizing a formidable enemy. She because of his superior class and power, he because of her magic core that was giving out the unending stream of power she had under her control.

As the two readied their weapons (a light spear for him and Trap of Argalia for her) a sound message was heard.

"This is an order, go back to the base maggots. I already have what I wanted here."

Lucas, hearing his orders, got desperate. He had no way of defeating these guys fast and making his leader wait was synonymous with disrespect, punishable with death. As he realized that he saw that there was only one way of getting out of this alive, and it was NOT fighting Azazel daughter.

Setting his resolve, he launched the light spear he just made with all strength he had but made it so that the energy was as unstable as possible so as to, when Emily decided to sweep it always,

KABOOM

An explosion happened.

Emily was not wounded by it, mostly due to how much her energy coiled around her in an instinctive protective cocoon, but the force was enough to stun her for one second.

Plenty of time for Lucas to launch himself down using all the strength he had, his target being the girl with the Excalibur Fragment, the sword being his secondary objective but it would have to do now.

Those in the ground tried to stop him, but the simple fact is that the power of an ultimate-class, a well-rested ultimate-class, was leagues apart from them, especially when they were all tired.

He swatted away all of those in his path to his only chance of life remaining, not even bothering to kill those wounded and tired enemies such was his desperation to follow orders.

Issei tried to punch him away, but Lucas just moved one of his wings to swat him away. Miku tried to launch a sound blast at him, but it only managed to delay him for half a second before it stopped being effective.

Hurry, hurry, was the only thing on his mind.

Irina changed the Excalibur Mimic to appear like a lance and tried to pierce him, and he welcomed the attack. While the move was fast and precise, showing how Irina was proficient in all sorts of weapons, she was simply too tired and slow to actually reach him. All she got was her weapon caught on the shaft before the tip actually touched Lucas' body.

His smirk seeing this was short lived since he showed his back to Okuyasu that, using what was left of his strength, used his sacred gear to approach Lucas' back delivered an explosive punch he learned during this time period after the last mission of the Tower. The technique was called 'Body Tearing Bone Shattering Fist' and while not particularly powerful at first glance it allowed him to when punching someone vibrates his ki in a way that will, as the name says, tear the body and shatter bones as if they were paper. It was a mighty attack, and receiving it on his back made Lucas feel like his body was being torn apart in two and he even lost a bit of the feeling on his legs.

Spitting blood Lucas turned to face his enemy, just to be greeted by another punch from Okuyasu aimed straight at his face. This time his face was affected by the 'Body Tearing Bone Shattering Fist' and as such the nerves there on his check lost the sensibility and he could no longer see clearly on his left eye.

That was a humiliation! He was a mighty and noble fallen angel, he trained for over 200 years to get where he was, to be allowed as one of the generals under Kokabiel and lead part of his honor guard, he was sent with this group of honor guards for this mission that should have marked his name in the history of his race, but here he was getting punched and attacked from everywhere.

He would NOT tolerate that; he would show them what it means to be an ultimate-class. Lucas took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and while being surrounded by many enemies he simply stopped thinking about how to attack and how to use his energy properly, he simply released any and all restraint that he had letting all energy in his disposal be liberated around him in an Omni-directional attack.

Everyone in there was launched far away, no one capable of holding on and attacking Lucas as this energy explosion happened. Looking around after seeing that no one else was coming after him he took off, in such hurry that he failed to see that the others were still very much alive and well. It was so thanks to Caren use of her holy shroud, her bidding mystic code that was modified by the Tower to be capable of defense as well as binding.

As Lucas escaped the others took a sigh of relief, looking around the destruction of the town was incredible and terrifying, to say the least. Good thing that the devils accepted to change the structure of the town defenses to also allow for quick teleportation of all civilians to a pocket dimension like the ones used on Rating Games, there would be a need for a LOT of memory modification to make those civilians forget everything and it would be a tiresome and ungrateful job, but it still is better than the alternative of 'painting the city red' so to say.

After that, in about five minutes, another group approached Emily group that was resting. It was the Rias and Sona groups' that came to see if everything was okay. When the two devil heiresses saw the destruction in this sector of the town they could feel a migraine from just imagining the work it would not cause them to fix it all, and even Sona's workaholic tendencies were not enough to make it any easier to take.

As the three groups reunited they started discussing what happened, the need to understand what happened exactly and what should be the next action. Bazet and Caren took one step back and away from each other, both deciding to leave the 'kids' do the deciding as it would be good experience and if they saw anything wrong with their decision they could go and fix it, a Spartan way of thinking but it was the best way of getting results and the best way of training them to when they had to do things themselves.

That went out of the window when a few new additions appeared in there.

"Huff, huff, finally, huff, huff, found you, huff, huff, guys." Allen said, trying to keep his white hair out of his eyes. He was having to carry two people with him right now, one very passed out Tsubaki, and one very awake and pissed at her sempai Xenovia.

When Castiel was about to launch his attack Xenovia had the 'brilliant' idea of trying to attack too, believing that she could help him 'deal' with Kokabiel. Allen knew better, he knew that if she did that she would be wasting Castiel's sacrifice and he would not let it happen. He quickly used his sacred gear to lock bind her and take her away, not giving her time to do anything else.

After the two were out of the 'danger zone' he tried to release Xenovia, but considering how agitated and verbal she was about what she thought about his actions, let's just say that there is a good reason for him to keep Durandal away from Xenovia's hand and keep her with a gag on her mouth as to not warn everyone in a 50-mile radius of their location.

As Sona saw Tsubaki's state she rushed over, worry for her friend was everything on her mind. Allen saw the worry in the devil girl's eyes and could not help but smile a bit, finding it interesting and beautiful that friendship and love can exist even among devils. However, he knew that what was needed now for Tsubaki was not Sona's worries or care but proper treatment. Ignoring Sona he dashed towards Okuyasu, making Sona get furious and in her current of mind she was not thinking right and she reacted in a 'non-Sona fashion'.

How, you might ask? By launching a water dragon straight at Allen's back.

He did not even bother to turn around to look at the attack, he simply threw three black-keys (he bought them from Caren some time ago, those things can be VERY versatile after all) and they expanded in mid-air in such a way as to block the water dragon.

Reaching Okuyasu Allen put with extreme care Tsubaki on the floor and said.

"Take care of her, she was very wounded in battle and needs help."

Okuyasu nodded his head and putting his sacred gear to use he healed Tsubaki's body and wing. As the healing took effect Tsubaki's expression relaxed and after some seconds opened her eyes.

It was only then that the others could react as, despite how long it took to explain, the facts took less than 10 seconds.

Everyone crowded around Allen, asking what happened, where were the others, and what was going on.

Before he could formulate an answer to anything someone else opened her mouth.

"We let them behind." Was what Xenovia said, and before she could continue a hand grabbed her by the neck and lifted her from the ground.

Bazet was NOT happy, not-one-bit.

"Explain, and explain it well, or dying will be the LEAST of your worries." Was what Bazet said.

She might be a sadistic teacher that threw Castiel of a cliff to face off the lions (unfortunately for him, it was true facts, and it was more than once too and with magic-enhanced lions because 'why the fuck not?') but she considered him her student, and she'd be damned if she let the boy die under her watch.

Nodding her head as fast as possible for someone lifted in the air by the neck Xenovia agreed to say everything.

Looking at her with hard eyes Bazet let her fall to the ground and breathe again (the fact that Xenovia's face was getting closer and closer to her hair color nothing more than an unimportant aspect to Bazet).

"This is what happened. We finished eliminating most of the stray devils around the northern area, but when we were on our way for the last one a mist covered us before we could react and took us to a separate dimension." At that, those from the Tower gnashed their teeth, irritation and cold fury in their eyes. Knowing that THOSE assholes were there did not sit well with them at all. "After that we were surrounded by over a hundred fallen angels and all we could do was stand our ground and defend ourselves, well except for that grey girl and the eye-patched one those two were killing quite a few, but the most troublesome and dangerous part was that there also were 10 low ultimate-class fallen angels there."

At that part, when everyone was worried about the sheer scale of this attack that went way beyond what they had expected, another person decided to continue. Allen opened his mouth to continue the tale.

"We were holding off somehow and if things continued like that we might not have won but survival was very likely, the problem was that Kokabiel decided to intervene at that time." At that everyone took a sharp breath, they all knew how strong someone like Kokabiel ought to be and the only one that could properly face him would be Bazet and even then it was not for certain. "As soon as he appeared we realized that we had no chance at winning this, extermination was the most likely if not certain result, but at that moment Castiel stepped ahead. He first knocked out Tsubaki and put her on my care since he saw that she was too wounded but still wanted to fight"

At that Tsubaki teared up, a mix of helplessness by making him do such a thing due to her weakness and happiness that he did that to save her, those two emotions were all that she had on her mind. But that changed too as Allen continued his explanations of what happened after.

"After that, he entrusted her to me and challenged Kokabiel to a bet, if he could wound him in any way he would let us go, if not he would do anything Kokabiel requested." At that Bazet thought that she should have beaten that self-sacrificing ideas out of him some more. They had managed to make him NOT go save everyone as he wanted and his father used to, but the fact remained that he could sometimes be a self-sacrificing idiot. "Kokabiel accepted it and said he wanted his presence for an 'experiment', and he requested the Excalibur Destruction for accepting this bet."

After he said that Allen got silent, not speaking any further. Okuyasu saw this and took a few steps towards the boy, catching his shirt in a violent fashion and yelled at the white-haired exorcist.

"And? What happened? Did he win?"

Allen looked to the ground, gnashed his teeth and said.

"I don't know. We ran as soon as he attacked as we could not take the risk." Was what Allen said.

Everyone started talking all at once, all different opinions were being launched around at once. At that instant, there was a wave of killing intent so cold and deadly that no one could possibly ignore.

Yuno arrived, and she was not well.

Her eyes were empty as she appeared in front of them and said.

"Where is the battlefield?"

Xenovia said, before anyone could say anything else.

"Follow me."

And follow they did.

Everyone was tired, they all wanted to rest and even if their wounds were healed exhaustion was still an all-encompassing thing for them at the time.

As they approached the place where the opening from where Allen and the others escaped they saw no opening, the space had collapsed in and of itself.

All that was outside of it was one girl, crying her eyes as she hugged something.

It was them could recognize due to still having some energy and being easy to relate to the person they were looking for.

It was an arm, Castiel's arm.

And the eyes of all those that saw it and realized what it was all about changed seeing that. If before they were tired and wanting to deal with this quickly, now they wanted just two things.

To rescue their friend (and in some cases fiancée).

To make a massacre out of EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE FUCKERS THAT DID THAT.

* * *

 **Wrier's Note:**

 **I wanted to make some things clear, first is that I read a reviewer that commented how I used Serenity just to make Castiel lose his right arm and while I do admit that I have planned for it for a while now I did have a reason as to do this and Serenity's actions should not be unexpected.**

 **She is a girl with an extremely low sense of self-worth and she already tried to kill herself once to help Castiel, she thinks about him first and foremost just as Hassan of Serenity thinks of whoever's master she would get if he manages to survive her poison. She also believed that she could kill Kokabiel, and she did execute her assassination plan flawlessly the only problem was that her poison was not toxic enough.**

 **Her poison right now can kill anyone bellow Super-class easily and quickly but to those in that class and above it is just plain impossible. For that, she will need to consume poisons that are absurdly deadly and take their properties in her body, just as the original Hassan did to become the poison girl.**

 **Also, the reason as to why Castiel was necessary has to do with his heritage and who exactly he is. I am just saying this to make those of you that are wondering that know it. Also, in case anyone is curious, I am now working on chapter 85 of this story and just finished chapter 24 of my other story too so if you have the time try checking that one out as I took a different approach on that one.**

 **Thanks for the attention and untill next time. =)**


	67. Chapter 61

Castiel P.O.V.

"... will be ready?"

Hmm... sensei pleaaaasseeeee, five more minutes. I don't wanna wake up! You are the one to wake Emily in the morning this time, use some of your torture methods on her...

"It will… at arou… iel-sama."

Why don't those pesky voices go somewhere and shut the hell up?

What does a guy need to do to get a good night of sleep around here? Pull a cowboy gunslinger and shoot on sight like those old western movies? Lose an arm?

...

...

...

...

...

...

Okay, backtracking here I can see the irony of my own statement.

Now that I'm conscious, my mind analyses everything around me while I make sure to remain motionless. Judging by how my blood's going to my head like a glass filling with water, I guess I'm now being carried by someone that I believe is Kokabiel (the cologne that smells worse than Berserker's excrement, I know, Illya sensei gave me first-hand experience with it when I accidentally broke some of the stuff in her lab. How was I to know that the weird thing in a bottle was the prototype of a new homunculus model, I was only 11 for fuck's sake) and he seems to be talking with someone. My, well, everything is hurting like a bitch except my right arm because… yeah, I won't be feeling that anymore. But if there is one thing I learned well during the years of training is how to pretend to be passed out when sustaining extremely serious injuries, had to use this many times while training with Berserker.

Thus, I then just stayed like that and listened.

"So I still will need to wait until after midnight tomorrow for it to be possible to start?" Kokabiel questioned. He sounded pretty frustrated and if this were any other situation I would mock him for that, or be at least a little happy. Right now, the only thing on my mind is the pain I'm in... and quite possibly the strain of doing my current actions.

Not easy playing possum while being carried like a potato sack, not at all!

"Yes, it is necessary to wait for the ideal timing to start your plans with the world's energy and around here the best time is just after midnight. We could have done this earlier today, but we only got all the ingredients after 1 AM so it would not work well enough." The one answering said. Seems like someone who is very experienced, probably some sort of scientist.

And what was this about a plan involving the world's energy? Whelp, nothing good if it's coke head over here who thought it up. Especially considering how this stuff can be dangerous, I mean it is the magic source of the whole world we are talking about here so who knows how much damage it can make if something goes wrong with it.

"And is there really no better place than the school for this? Maybe in the center of the town where it is a more comfortable location? Or close to the houses of the Gremory bitch or the Sitri slut?" said coke head questioned. Okay, NOW it was getting harder to keep my possum act up with the building amusement at his frustration. Even if he won the whole thing, we at least managed to unintentionally (though not regrettably) delay his plans.

Though calling women sluts is a bit on the assholic dick side.

"No, the best place really is Kuoh Academy. And it can only be mid-night tomorrow for the ritual to start." The, whoever is talking, said. Now that I pay more attention the voice is quite masculine and old, so I bet it is an old man (I know, I know, I am a 'genius' for realizing that).

"Tch, it will take one more day until I can return to my peak huh. No matter, no one else will appear here right now as I modified the bounded fields protecting the town anyway so there won't be anyone entering that could try and stop my glorious return." Kokabiel said. He then threw me far from him (thank God for no more cologne smell, did he decide that it wasn't enough to be bad but to also smell even worse? And did he use a full bottle of skunk essence to make it worse? God the smell is worse than his attacks) and into a wall far from him.

Did I say before that everything is hurting? I meant that NOW everything is even worse! Fuck I am feeling pain in muscles that I didn't even know existed in my back right now, how the hell can my back hurt so freaking much with this impact? Is this wall made out of mega man spikes or something?

After that demonstration of _care_ by Kokabiel, I heard the sound of metal hitting metal. I am probably in a cage now. I would like to say it is the first time I am locked in a small cage, but again I lived with Yuno in her more *cough* wild *cough* days so this is not even the worse location I ever ended up in.

I sometimes wonder if my love for her is Stockholm Syndrome… Nah, I just like how she is most times (and my teachers were scary enough for me not to fear her all that much anyway, what could she do to me that they didn't do while I was growing up?). I still think they're worse than Okuyasu's maters by the way.

"So? Why did you say that he was needed anyway Valper? I would rather eliminate him now and sand his corpse to the Tower so you better have a good explanation for keeping this fool alive." Kokabiel said, showing that someone is never too old to be a dick. If I had the ability and circumstances to, I'd say something along the lines 'go fuck yourself flying piece of ugly shit', but hey at least I can stay here knowing that he still is an ugly stinky motherfucker.

But then I recognize something that stops those thoughts. Did he just say Valper? Like in Valper Galilei, my father's disciple?

The fuck?! Is he working for this asshole? Why in hell would Valper work for this flying piece of shit?

Wait, if he IS working with this scumbag... oh shit, I foresee some shit going down when his adoptive daughter finds out. Best make sure to prepare me for that.

"Yes, he is essential. Thanks to his heritage, sealed or not, he can serve as communication with the world energy necessary to complete your request and without him, it would be necessary for you to use at least half of the ultimate-class fallen that are serving you, and the result would still not even be that great." Valper replied, and a low groan could be heard from old Kokabiel.

Okay, I need to organize what they just said. Let's list them, it'll be easier to understand then just make them one whole paragraph.

One, I will not be killed at least until tomorrow evening so I can try to recover as much as possible meanwhile.

Second, Valper is working for Kokabiel in completing some project that I know just about nothing about. Probably should think about investigating that if I have the chance.

Third, they need me because of my 'heritage?' even though I don't know why me being the son of my father would mean anything special and who knows what the woman that threw me away was anyway;

Fourth, and right now more important, is that I HATE this new 'blessing' I just made with a passion, and it will go right into the 'never use unless last case scenario' part of my skills, it is right beside devouring someone else until the very soul (unless it is the spear bastard, his crew, or that green-haired devil little shit, those guys deserve that and worse).

After that, I heard the sound of steps going away from me and could not feel anyone else around. Good, now I can start acting and… huh, why can't I move a single muscle?

The answer comes to me, and if I could I would facepalm. Speak of the devil, anyone? The Skill I was just ranting about is the cause for this.

Even so, shit, is the damage that bad? I feel like my body is completely covered in chains and that every move is going against them, and did I mention that the 'chains' are barded?

Yep, I feel like trash. But, I must not let this shitty pain stop me.

Using whatever was left of my energy I started using a blessing ( **Angel Embrace** ) so as to heal at least part of my wounds. Strangely enough, the blessing was working faster and more smoothly than before, even though I am not purring all that much energy on it.

Is that 'blessing' ( **Sacrifice** ) messing with me, or did I gain anything because I used it? You know what, there are a time and place to study that and it is not now and not here.

As I felt part of my wounds closing, it was like a switch got flipped. The reason: I could now feel how bad I was, especially when the feeling of pain started 'coming back'. You know the pain I was feeling, the one like I was kicked in the nuts but in the whole body? I miss that 'small' amount now.

FUCK IT HURTS!

I am awake just because of self-hypnosis to remain awake, but oh my fucking God is this pain bad. Dozens of curse words are having a fucking party in my head right now, and I don't appreciate that. It is like every single muscle in my body decided to see how much they can be wrecked without losing the right to be called 'muscle'. Is this how minced meat feels? I guess it is.

FUCK IT HURTS SO FREAKING MUCH!

About ten minutes later (it might as well have been hours from how bad it was) the pain finally subsided somewhat, not enough for me to say stopped (it still feels like my bones are all broken just seconds ago) I could finally open my eyes. Even my eyelids are heavy as fuck but I at least confirmed that there wasn't any nerve breaking on them.

Not going blind is a relief, if I were to bet it was because my eyes are mystical eyes so they were saved somehow.

As I looked around the room I noticed that yes I was on an iron cell with a lot of runes that I recognize all too well as being the same style as those used in the Tower. Probably it was those 'heroes' fuckers that sold this to that fallen flying piece of shit.

I hate them. I hate them all so goddamn much! If you wanna know how big my hate for them is, thin Berserker in a fully rampage state, on steroids, then multiply by a thousand and you get the idea.

But now is not the time to dwell on my hate, because this gives me an idea.

I know that I have just about 0% chance of getting out of whatever place I am at right now, but it doesn't mean I can't at least do something.

They WILL regret not killing me when they had the chance.

Taking a deep breath, I connected myself to my familiars, it was impossible to call for Jirachi or the two Cosmoems but Eevee was available. I did not call for him earlier because the situation was simply too chaotic and I would never be able to live with myself if I let him get hurt or die because of me, he is my companion after all.

As the magic circle for summoning Eevee appeared I got worried that he might activate some security measure, but nothing happened. I guess they think that having a super-class here is enough for security.

Fools.

When the summoning completed Eevee looked happy for being called, but that happiness in his eyes swiftly got snuffed out like candlelight at nighttime as soon as he saw me. He started getting VERY agitated and even tried to hit the cell as to 'help me escape', but I stopped it right away.

I was simply to hurt and could never leave here alive if I tried to escape like this, especially since I was not exactly essential for whatever thing they were planning. I could not even walk right now, the feeling of chains in my body was locking me up almost completely. Plus, here I could listen in on any blabering mouths for information, there was always that one person.

"Calm down boy, everything is fine." I said, trying to give him a reassuring smile, but if Eevee's face was anything to go by it was not helping at all. "Listen, we don't have a lot of time. They can appear at any time now so you got to do as I say now." I told him in a hushed whisper, trying my best despite my pained state to showcase the seriousness this situation had. Good thing, it worked. His distressed looks are slowly being replaced with a serious and, dare I say, professional look, which pleased me. I truly couldn't ask for better familiars. "You need to go and inform the others not to try anything now, that I will be kept alive at least until tomorrow at midnight and that whatever ritual they will be using me for will be on Kuoh Academy. I am alive and am not being tortured, so don't go doing anything stupid." I then heard the sound of steps approaching from afar, so I quickly give him the last bit. "Go Eevee, I am counting on you."

He looked like he understood, following that the jewels he carried on his neck changed and a light purple color covered him. As the light receded he had changed forms to a slim and delicate appearance, his tail got two points, his eyes got big and crystal blue, his ears got bigger and pointy with two big pieces of 'fur' underneath them. But the most notable characteristic is the red jewel right in the middle of his forehead that was emanating a strange and mystical aura. This was Eevee psychic form, Espeon.

"Espeon." He said before teleporting away. And not a second later the doors to whatever this place is were opened and there were the steps of two people entering here.

As I looked to see who they are I could not help but make a strange face, especially considering they came with food plates on hand.

Then again, perhaps some stress relief was in order, and I had some un(?)willing test subjects.

"Hey, I didn't know you guys 'advanced' in your careers to become maids. How has it been this last few weeks Dohnasek, dumbitch?"

Yep, even in this situation, I can still be an asshole.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

Right now the others in the Town are, for the lack of better words, about to make a new installment of Captain America 3: Civil War. Why? Well…

"And as I fuckin' just said, let's go there now and kick their feathery asses before it grows any worse." Okuyasu yelled at the others, with about half with looks of an agreement.

"No, we must first recover our strengths before anything else. We are too tired to do anything besides dying to them right now." Was what Emily said, already reading her bed to go sleep.

"If we wait too long they can get away with this, and letting them get away with all they did is not something I as the future head of the Gremory Clan can accept!" Rias said, glaring at the others.

"And as I already told you, foolishly going there now will accomplish nothing and doing so is against any logic I can conceive." Sona answered, glaring back at her friend/rival.

"We must go rescue him, we just have to Sona-sama." Tsubaki rebutted her king.

"Annoyance. And why is t that you, who was just a dead weight when it counted trying to act tough now?" a monotone, but for anyone that knew her extremely pissed, Yuzuru pointed out.

"Ahh, let's just go and rescue the one that is prophesized to be my companion across the ages before it is too late and I have to release the power sealed within me." Kaguya said, already starting to walk towards the door.

"Oh no, you don't. We got to recover first and foremost before we can start our plans to attack." Caren urged, trying to seal the door using her mystic code. But that was stopped when an enraged Bazet who stopped her actions saying.

"Yeah, you know very well how acting in such a cowardly fashion gets us. You want to complete the work that that woman failed now?" was what Bazet said, glaring at Caren.

And the talks remained that way, in a cycle that showed how 'united' they all are. Meanwhile, there were those that were not handling the facts in that good of a way.

Miku was looking absent minded to space while muttering 'Darling, where are you, Darling? You said you will protect me so where are you? Darling, where are you, Darling?' repeatedly.

Serenity was much the same, but instead of muttering anything she could only tremble in place. Pure terror was mixed with shame in her eyes, those last few moments she saw what he did for her because she was too weak, kept repeating in her mind. She still remembers the blood dripping from where his arm SHOULD be, and how he did it because of her. All sorts of thoughts were circling around her head, and she could not stop herself to get deeper and deeper into depression.

And as for Yuno, well… she was doing just fine. If by fine sitting in a corner of the room waiting for her sacred gear **Aletheia Nikki** was trying to discover how he was, and while waiting she kept using her knife (that she produced from somewhere that no one knew) to repeatedly stab the ground while muttering the names of EVERY SINGLE ONE that was involved in this attack that she could think off.

The fact that the hole made of the sheer stone was getting deeper by the minute and that she remained on her exact same position while repeatedly muttering the names, that the knife broke the tip and she did not even notice it as she kept 'stabbing' the floor, yeah it was a good sign. She was doing just fine.

There was this unspoken rule, one that the Fallen have just broken: Never, EVER piss off a yandere.

In this tense mood, where there appeared to be about to explode with the slightest spark, one light purple spark surged.

Or to be more precise a purple 'dog' that entered the room, he also was not that good due to how absurdly hard it was to get out of the fallen angel's base without being detected. He would demand deluxe rations and spa level treatment after this, he deserved it.

But these thoughts were thrown out of the window when almost the eyes in the room focused on him at once. He walked forward and started transmitting the message from Castiel to the others telepathically, he simply repeated the same words to them as he could not generate his own thoughts in the minds of others quite yet (the only exception being Castiel, but that was due to him being his master).

As the message was transmitted, Espeon finally could relax again, immediately going back to his base form and dropping on the ground to sleep. The tiredness he was in was NOT small at all after all.

The others started processing the information they received, and strangely enough, the one with the most, let's say obvious, response to it was none other than Sona.

"How dare they? How dare they?! They invaded my city and now are using MY school for some weird ritual?! That's it! I will kill them! I WILL!" She shrieked and was about to go out there at that instant to, in her own words in her mind, 'tear a new hole in all of them'.

Again, they were all VERY stressed due to recent events.

Before Sona could walk out and TRY to bring heave… I mean hellish punishment to those who dared to do such actions, someone stood in her way.

Emily was in front of Sona, the two glaring at each other

"And where do you think you are going?" Emily asked.

"Obviously I am going to the school. I will start creating defenses there as soon as possible and eliminate all intruders." Is what Sona said.

"No, has the last battle not taught you anything about the enemy? You are going to waste your life if you go there. Anything you create to 'defend' the school will simply be destroyed by Kokabiel's army of the man himself." Emily rebutted.

"And what do you suggest we do? Stay here doing nothing?" Sona asked.

"Yes, we will remain here and recover our strengths. We also must communicate with our respective faction leaders so as to deal with this situation, and this includes your sister Sona Sitri." Emily replied sharply, making Sona take a step back due to the sheer intensity of Emily's stare.

Sona and Rias agreed to it, unfortunately, they could not request help from the Japanese Pantheon since this counted as devil's territory and entry of them here would not be allowed no matter what.

After that Emily, Allen, Rias, and Sona called to their respective homes with not so great results. The Tower could send some reinforcements, but it couldn't be that many due to most being on missions right now. Apparently some problem in Europe due to the two vampire factions deciding to have a 'dick-measuring' contest, which is especially ironic considering how the Carmella faction is female-dominated.

They will be sending what they can while also trying to communicate with Grigori (the fallen angel's faction base) so as to understand what is going on and demand explanations.

Or at least that is what Emily understood amidst all the less than flattering comments about 'like father like son' and the rhetorical questions if idiocy was on the blood.

For the Church's side, however, the situation was quite less enthusiastic.

"What do you mean there are no reinforcements from your sides?" Emily asked, barely stopping herself from shouting, clear fury in her voice.

"I tried to request for more help here, but they said that 'God is with you' and then hang up on me. straight after." Allen replied, gripping his fists in frustration.

...

...

...

How could she have expected anything else?

The church once again proved that it was not right in the head. Was it excessive bureaucracy or sheer stupidity? That was what Emily thought at that time. Not only did they send too few troops here, hoping for the best, but they refused in sending more reinforcements when knowing what was going on.

At this point, Emily would not be surprised if there were those in there that were corrupted and where on Kokabiel's 'pocket' so to say. It would explain how he managed to get the Excalibur Fragments in the first place.

But, the most infuriating side was still, the devils.

"I called my brother and he said that the elders already ordered NO intervention in assisting me or Sona no matter what we are to face. Officially it is to help 'sharpen' us, to make us stronger and more capable of handling things ourselves." Rias replied with crossed arms and a twitching brow, with Sona nodding and while she didn't show it, her eyes told them JUST how much she APPRECIATED that.

Fucking elders.

In the end, there was nothing they could do but go rest and prepare for the next day. Now all they could do was get ready for the next battle.

STAB STAB STAB

And also, they could not get anywhere near Yuno. Who knows when she will stop handling it well?

* * *

In a dark room somewhere

In somewhere undisclosed a group of people was reuniting.

"So, how is the plan going Ice?" one man that was sitting in the main chair of the table asked.

"It is going better than expected master. We can expect that foolishly fallen angel to open the first seal for us soon enough." The man named Ice answered his master/center of the universe to him.

"Good. And how is everything going to the other locations?" The leader asked.

"In Brazil, the witch is ready to break the seal whenever needed and in Russia, they have found the most likely location for it to." Ice responded while still kneeling down. He was the one with the most unwavering and absolute loyalty to his lord, in contrast to most of the others that were here simply because of convenience.

"Hum, good to know. Excellent work for them too, send them a message telling them that their work is appreciated. And for you guys?" The leader said looking at the others in the room.

One man with an immense build, red jacket, and a cigar was the first to answer.

"On Africa, everything is going fine and as predicted. We found some clues about what the seal there will be and afterward everything will go as you planned."

"Good work as always Inu. And for you guys?" the leader asked.

An old tan man with a large scar on his face, white hair, one eye closed due to a scar there, and using white clothes while sitting on a bone throne decided to talk now.

"Everything is going great in Greece, we managed to contact and ally with one of the local Gods in exchange for helping him in a 'little project' of his so you can expect the seal to be broken without any problems there."

"Good to know Bara, try and see how long will it takes. And remember to not raise suspicions as much as possible." The leader said, with the answer to his words being a grunt of annoyance.

The next man in the room, using his two-piece black suit and black top hat decided to talk.

"In Australia, everything is going according to the expected schedule. I managed to find where I believe to be the hiding place of the seal and the method to break it is under investigation. It will probably not take overly long to see the results."

"Oh, as expected of you Rob, you always work in a perfect fashion." The leader said. "And how is your side going Yoshi?"

"It is not going that well. I am still trying to identify the exact location of the seal in North America, and even then I don't know exactly what should be done to break it." Yoshi said. He was a 'face in the crowd', completely and utterly unremarkable making him exceptionally good in his job, so if he could not find anything it would be a complicated situation, to say the least.

"Take Hassan with you just in case, it is about time for him to do something besides lurking in my shadows. I tell you these corrupted heroic spirits are not easy to control." The leader said.

There were no other people in the room so he ordered them to sort out and go see to their missions.

After they left the man walked outside of the room as well, stopping in front of a large window where he could look at everything with the outside. He looked at all the peace and quiet that there was there and felt disgusted by it, he would make sure to plunge this world in curses so dark and terrible that would make even the most crazed psychopaths (except Yoshi, he would handle it just fine) dream of better days.

And the key for all was breaking those seals and the vampires, that those fools continue following his orders. As things stand he would win, he would win this giant game of chess against the world that most didn't even know they were playing.

And it would all start with 'Kokabiel's plan'.


	68. Chapter 62

3° person P.O.V.

To say that the night was not that good was an understatement. Most people here barely managed to sleep at all, and the others passed out cold as soon as they reached the bed.

In the morning, however, an unexpected problem surged.

Who would be making the food?

It is not that there weren't enough ingredients, but the simple fact is that those who could move well were, for the lack of better words, a public hazard in the kitchen. It was to the point that Castiel was researching how to create a bounded field that would repel them no matter what, unfortunately, it was still in development and was fully useless when it comes to Lugh as the girl was simply too effective when it comes to going pass this sort of things.

She was truly a thief first and foremost.

With these thoughts in mind, Emily tried to approach the kitchen, only to see that someone else was already there.

"I didn't know you could cook, Allen Walker?" Emily said to the exorcist.

The white-haired boy turned to Emily and gave her a large smile as he said.

"It is the least I can do, especially considering the fiasco of last night and how we must get ready for today so making food is a priority." Allen said. "A soldier with an empty stomach don't last in the battlefield. That was one of my master's teachings."

Emily lifted one of her eyebrows and asked.

"Surprisingly true, your master seems to have been a very serious person if he has taught you this." Emily complemented.

Allen could only look to the side and laugh awkwardly as he remembered that his master said those words to him after he had partied for too long and went to 'pray' with one of the attendants right after, his masters face as he said those words while others were laughing at him for him 'not delivering the promised' as the same attendant said to anyone that would listen.

Well, that was also the time where they were going on a mission of hunting down a stray devil, stopped for dinner, and his master bailed out as soon as the bill arrived because he must 'take advantage of having a full stomach'.

Honestly, Allen could only see his master as the exact opposite of a serious or even respectful adult.

"A-Anyway, did you sleep well?" Allen asked.

Emily gave him a large smile and said.

"Yes, I slept great and am completely ready to go fighting tonight."

Allen nodded and continued producing strip after strip of bacon, making some porridge for those who are still in bed (meaning Irina and Tsubaki), and preparing a large variety of other things.

But, one thing was unnerving him.

The fact that Emily was still smiling even after over 20 minutes of silence.

"Why are you smiling so much? Are you that happy? Shouldn't you be, I don't know, showing something else?" Allen asked.

She looked a bit surprised a bit and then continued to smile and said.

"Oh, nothing to worry about. I am just fine, happy even. There is nothing to worry about."

For some reason, Allen did not buy that at all. He remained quiet for some more time and then he decided to serve her the first plate of breakfast before the others wake up.

"So… you are fine? Did you sleep well?" Allen said.

Still, with the exact same smile, Emily said.

"I slept great, my dream was so wonderful that I could have spent the full day in bed and wouldn't have minded."

"Oh, and what did you dream about?" Allen asked, coming to regret the question not long later.

"Nothing much. It was mostly just about how I would find all fallen angels that were attacking us last night, remove their spines and beat every single one of them to death with it." She then made a 'cute' gesture of thinking and corrected herself. "No, wait I said a lie. I also saw myself hanging a few with their entrails or cutting their throats just enough for them to be alive long enough to choke on their own blood. And about Kokabiel, it was mostly a blur after I cut his balls and made him swallow them, then opened his belly so as to remove said balls and make him swallow them again but this time with his micro-sized dick as the 'main dish'. Like I said, it was nothing much."

Allen decided then and there that he would NOT get on this girl's bad side. AT. ALL.

She is nuts, especially considering how she went to great lengths afterward on explaining how to do every single one of those things and how it was possible to do it. She is a genius in many areas, and unfortunately, that also includes human and super-natural biology.

Allen thanked God when another person entered the room. Unfortunately for him, this person in question was Serenity that came here so as to 'learn more about what she needed to know'.

Allen never regretted more the fact that he knew how to cook and was the only one capable of doing so in this whole place than right now.

* * *

After everyone had breakfast they decided to go to the basement to train a bit, see if they could coordinate better as it was obvious that they needed to do that.

Thankfully, last night's battle did bring some benefits, specifically the fact that they all started using their attacks better and grew a bit in strength. It is actually a very common trait as people do tend to grow stronger faster when going through pressure, especially of the life and death kind. A classic example are the current 4 Maous of the underworld that grew from simply talented to leader-class in just a few years due to fighting in the devils' civil war.

As they started training Issei was sitting in a corner, he was not feeling great for some time now. It had to do with how he could only use his balance breaker for just a few seconds before passing out.

"Hey Draig, is there any way for you to make this all better? I mean, the training is advancing and all that but the enemies are growing too strong too fast. I-I am afraid, that something might happen to those I care, that they will die because I was too weak."

His sacred gear was quiet for some time, but after a while, it started talking again.

"It is not impossible to make you at least strong enough to use the balance breaker for two or three minutes right now. But are you sure partner? It will change you forever if you go ahead with this, you will not be the same." Draig said in a serious tone. He was proposing an ultimate solution, one that he was not particularly happy to do it as he started accepting his host and going ahead with this plan would not be something he was comfortable with.

"Go ahead Draig. I need to be stronger, no matter what I won't let any friend of mine be wounded or die on me." Issei said with confidence.

Draig could not help but nod in approval, this is what he likes to see as a motivated host is exactly what he wants so as to 'show off' to his 'destined rival' (damn Ivankov) as he was mad that the last battle they had ended with Albion's host winning. However this time his host was not overly lazy so there was a much better chance of him to win this time around, after all, how strong can Albion's host be?

* * *

At this time in Grigory, Vali was using his balance breaker to spar against 9 high ultimate-class fallen, and he was feeling way to bored. He was even talking with Albion mid-fight since it was just too easy for him. At that moment he heard the sound of a barely contained laugh.

"What is it Albion? Is there something funny?"

"No, nothing important. I was just thinking on the face of Draig when he sees my new host."

At that Vali could not help but give a feral smile at the prospect of facing his destined rival, someone that would be strong enough to challenge him.

Suddenly a shout was heard as a little girl came running towards the training area. She had a scar across her left cheek, one on her right eye, and tattoos on her shoulders. She also had the same gray color of hair as Vali while keeping it at shoulder length. Her eyes were golden colored and she looked around 10 or 12 years old.

"Mama, we have orders from Azazel." The girl said, stopping the match (much to the relieve of the fallen angels that were taking a beating).

Sighing, Vali approached and ruffled her hair.

"Jackeline, I already told you a thousand times that I am not your mama, I am your older half-brother." Despite saying this Vali was smiling fondly at the girl. She was his younger sister for his mother's side as after she managed to run away from his father she had to go through a rough spot, and the result was this adorable killing machine.

Vali dotted on her immensely, especially since he only considered her and his older brother Ban (also from his mother's side, she had a very active sex life and only was with his father due to being forced) as his only real family in the world. Well, a family that he was not interested in killing slowly and painfully that is.

"And, what is the mission?" Vali said to his little sister, who had her eyes closed with a face that showed just how much she was enjoying the care her brother was giving her.

Almost like the 'spell' was just broken she started fumbling in her backpack so as to get the document with the exact details of what was going on. She then pulled out a paper and decided to read out loud.

"Ahem, _go and stop that idiot Kokabiel before he can start a fucking war with everyone against us, and if he hurts Emily or Akeno you are allowed to use extreme force on him. Also, if possible help rescue Castiel Emiya as he was captured by Kokabiel and if anything happens to him because of that we are fucked._ Or so Azazel said." Jackeline said with a cute proud smile on her face.

That smile was mirrored by her 'Mama' Vali, but in his case, it was not a smile of pride but one of an apex predator looking for prey and that sorry excuse of a fallen angel would do nicely to relieve his stress.

"Go and call Karasuba. She probably will like this."

"Hum, and do you want uncle Kuzan to go too?" Jackeline asked.

Vali shocks his head and said.

"It is better not. If he was to go it would be all over as soon as he attacks, and what would be the fun in that?"

Jackeline nodded and went her way, but what Vali did not see is that his predatorial smile was not even comparable in ferocity to his little sister. After all, he might be the white dragon emperor, but she was unique too. She was the reincarnation of Jack-the-Ripper, and she managed full compatibility and fusion making her one of the deadliest assassins in the whole world.

And this is not even to talk about Ban, he was born with the sacred gear **Twilight Healing** in a state of constant sub-species balance breaker making him virtually immortal.

This is one heck of a family.

* * *

Back in Castiel's basement, Issei listened to Draig's explanation about what he would be doing.

"...so, let me see if I get this right. You will transfer more of your power and fuse my flesh to some of yours to make me a humanoid dragon/reincarnated devil instead of a human/reincarnated devil. Is that it?" Issei asked.

"Basically. It won't be that through of a fusion since most of my flesh and bones were taken away from me, but part of it is still with me and this is what I will be fusing with you. It will not make your body as strong as mine used to be by a long, LONG shot, but it will make you capable of withstanding the balance breaker form for about two or three minutes without draining you too much." Draig explained.

What he did not explain, however, is how the fusion would not be nearly as great is should have been. What he would be transferring to Issei was actually just a few drops of his blood and about one or two kilograms of his meat, not because he was being stingy but simply because Issei would not be capable of withstanding any more than this.

He had one of the strongest bodies in the whole dimension, the number of beings that can match him in this aspect are rather few and even then the energy existing in a dragon's body is not something a normal devil or human could ever hope to match. And to be fair even if Draig wanted to give more to Issei it would be virtually impossible due to how few he actually had thanks to God, during the creation of the boosted gear, have taken away most of the body for the creation of one of those damned semi-Longinuses.

To say that Draig had some disagreements with God was putting it mildly.

But back to the point, Issei accepted the deal, mostly so that he could properly protect the girls he cared for (Koneko, Irina, and a bit Rias and Akeno due to the treasure of the world they carry called Oppai).

"If you want to do this you should go to one of those rooms there that are made exclusively to be sturdy. It is because the energy of what we will be doing is not something that should be released next to those you care about, especially since it could harm them quite easily." Draig said.

Issei nodded and went looking for Emily to ask for which room was available to use.

What he saw there was enough to make him want to go back in that corner and not get out to face this chick at all. I mean, she was right now facing Rias, Akeno, and Sona as a three on one and she was still beating them. It was an aerial battle, Emily's specialty.

"Come on, you guys wanted to know how it is to fight a fallen angel when it can use its full flying skills so you got to keep up." Emily shouted as she launched three light-spears at them.

The girls managed to avoid the three but were too slow to aim properly thus giving Emily the necessary time to launch over 20 spears at them.

To say that the three devils were in a passive position was putting things mildly.

GULP

Looking at this Issei decided that he would keep his feet on the ground during this battle, he only knew one flying move after all and it was something Castiel politely named as 'the flying target'.

When he approached he saw Akeno being sent flying to the ground in high-speeds due to an ax kick to the head with a lot of reinforcement and momentum delivered by Emily. The fact that Emily's eyes were shining red with glee when she did that to someone with fallen angel blood showed that she was handling things just fine and was not misdirecting her hate at all.

As Issei saw Akeno dropping from the skies he used all of his speed to jump and catch her before she hit the ground, as even if it would not be fatal or anything of the sort it would still hurt her and seeing Akeno being hurt is something he would never stand for.

Feeling herself being caught by someone Akeno opened her eyes and saw a brunet holding her as she fell, her consciousness was still quite messy due to the ax kick to the head so when she saw Issei she could not help but mix his image with the one from happier times, from the times she was held by her father while being beside her mother. She could not help but mix the feeling of warmth and care she felt then and the one she was feeling now from Issei, and even if it was something relatively small it still left a mark on her heart.

Unfortunately, this was as far as it went before she fully passed out cold, a small trail of blood on her forehead due to the attack.

"H-Hey, where is there someone that can heal? We need a healer here, Akeno-san is hurt." Issei started to shout desperately, much to the 'improvement' of Emily's mood.

"Shut the fuck up. We are trying to train here, just leave her in a corner of the field and everything will be fine." Emily shouted while evading dozens of clusters of PoD from Rias, the Gremory heir was not happy about the state her best friend and decided to show it by using as many PoD attacks as possible towards Emily, which were all evaded flawlessly. Talk about whatever you want but it is an absolute truth that Emily was really good at flying.

Still worried Issei nodded to her words, he also knew that these sparing spots all had bounded fields specialized in healing so just remaining here would heal Akeno in no time. After Issei put her in a corner of the field he asked Emily to go down there as he wanted to ask her something.

Sighing Emily did as he asked.

"So? What do you want?" Emily said.

"I just wanted to ask where is one of the rooms reinforced to not break? Draig and I will be doing some stuff that needs such a place." Issei said.

"And what exactly are you planning Issei? It isn't anything dangerous, right?" Rias came down to as she heard his words.

Issei looked at her directly on the eyes (which was particularly difficult for him due too the two eye magnets she had on her body) and said.

"Nothing dangerous, it will only make me stronger and we need that if we want to win this fight."

Rias knew that he was not telling her everything, but she decided to let him do as he wanted because it was his choice. She might be his master but she would respect his decisions as long as it would not kill himself due to them.

"Fine, but you better not be doing something too stupid or I will have to punish you for it later." Rias said, thinking it strange that Issei started bleeding through his nose after she said that.

The image of her in a tight leather revealing clothes with a horse whip on her hand while saying that she will deliver him the punishment he deserves was one image that was 'just a bit' stimulant to the young pervert.

While looking on the side Emily decided to just go ahead and tell him where to go as she wanted to go back to relieving stre... sparing with these three.

"If you want a room that can withstand a lot of power you can go to the far left of the basement, the room 4 is unoccupied right now." Emily said, hoping to end it now so that she could go back to the training.

Nodding his head Issei was just about to go to that room when he had a thought.

"Hey, when are the reinforcements from the Tower arriving?" Issei asked.

Emily looked at him and said.

"Rin said that they will probably arrive sometime during the morning so it is probably any time now. It is probably taking long because they want to enter here undetected and stealthily."

At that instant, they started hearing a sound from afar, and considering that they were underground the sound must be absurdly loud or they would not hear a single thing here.

* * *

In the middle of the streets of Kuoh, a motorcycle was traveling. Well, a motorcycle might not be the best way to describe a bike with the extension of over 8 meters, with just the exhaustor being four to five meters in extension. It had one front wheel that had some retractable spikes and two back wheels with star symbols on them.

To make it even more flashy it also was all painted in silver, red and blue, and completing the image the rider was a huge man with two large scars running across his chest, metal on his legs to make them look almost completely robotic, the shoulders were big metal balls with the words 'BF - 37' on them. His hand and forehand were completely robotic with the forearms with the appearance of two blue metal boxes and the hands looking like red metal gloves that were big enough to catch a medicinal ball and cover it completely.

But he was here 'stealthily' so he was using a ninja clothing, one with a huge golden stan on the back with the word SUPER above it in bright red.

And of course, how could he ever travel without his most necessary and important item? Yes, he was doing his stealthy mission while listening to 'Wellcome to the Jungle' by Guns'n Roses, one of the greatest bands to ever exist on earth.

Yep, he was the poster man to stealth.

His name is Franky, the leader of the technology division on the Tower and he was as American as they come.

And in case of doubt, yes he was carrying way too many guns on his person, but again he was SUUUUUUPPPPPEEEEERRRRRR.


	69. Chapter 63

3° person P.O.V.

Looking at the person that came to help Emily could not help but facepalm. The twins were excited to see him, obviously, while Yuno was…

STAB STAB STAB STAB

…still handling things just fine.

Bazet was also having troubles liking their reinforcements' way of acting 'stealthily', Caren was finding it a bit funny (Bazet's face that it), and the others were confused. Who was this guy?

As the colossus of a motorcycle stopped in front of the house it was right when the music was on its ending.

" _And I'm going down all the way Whoooaaaaaaaaaa! I'm on the highway to hell_." As the driver finished the music he cleaned some water from his eyes and said. "This is art, this is what I call a good song. This is SSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" And of course, at his last words, he made a pose where he leans to one side and bends the knee on the same side. The other leg is straight and going the opposite direction. He throws his head back. His arms go over his head at lock together wrist-to-wrist. The two separate star tattoos push together to make one star. Of course, the star shined in bright red.

Seeing this some of the people here (meaning Issei and Saji) could not help but look at the guy as if he was awesome. The girls on the other hand… yeah, they did not appreciate it, especially considering how he was walking on nothing but swimming briefs.

Shaking her head Emily decided to take a step forward.

"Hello, Franky-aniki. It has been a while." She said with a smile (this time not the same one that she showed Allen, the 'I want to bloody kill someone' smile).

"Aauuhh, yeah it has been suuuuper long since the last time." He says. He then pulled out a bench from a compartment on the motorcycle, readied it, took out a guitar and said. "So much so that it makes me want to make a song about it."

And thus he started playing… is what he wanted to, but Emily quickly stopped him. Partially because she had things to discuss with him, but the most part was because he has zero talent in music. If he tried who knows if he would manage to destroy all the windows in the house.

"That is okay, Franky-aniki. We can catch up later, now there are more important things to do." Emily said, and as soon as she finished saying this Franky got a serious face and nodded.

They then entered the house, and as they entered Franky got to see Castiel's arm. It was in front of Yuno and no one there was brave enough to try and take it away from her.

Seeing this Franky's hand clenched hard enough that it was possible to hear the sound of the metal bending. He was not happy at all, no, if anything he was completely pissed that such a thing happened. He considered the kid like a younger brother, and now seeing his arm like that and knowing that he would be used in some shitty ritual, and to make things worse he was imprisoned and who knows if he is being treated in a decent fashion.

* * *

At that time, on the prison in Kokabiel's hideout

"Work harder, dumbitch. My back won't get better by itself" A blond boy with only one arm said to a fallen angel woman who was terrified of said boy fiancée. "If you don't get it right I will tell Yuno that you where the one that hurt my back and tried to seduce me when you don1t even like me. You think that she was mad before? Wait for what can only be called a nightmare if this massage isn't good enough."

Correction, the fallen angel previously known as Raynare was between tears of humiliation and sheer terror, something that the one-armed boy liked to see.

What, she is his enemy anyway.

* * *

Yep, he must be suffering so much, that is what Franky and the others believe.

Shaking his head to get out of this foul mood he advanced towards the kitchen as the living room was

STAB STAB STAB STAB

Occupied.

After getting there he sits on a chair across from some of the others (Rias, Akeno, Tsubaki, Sona, Emily, Bazet, Allen, Caren) so as to start the conversations.

"So, I got to ask first but does this place have Cola?" Franky asked, breaking the tension that was surging in the air.

Not knowing if she should laugh or cry Emily went to the fridge and took out a Cola from there, it was one of the few things Castiel didn't seal up as soon as he could out of fear of the nightmare the others in the house could create with it.

Taking the drink, he thanked her before opening his belly and directly deposited the cola in there, the compartment was more than big enough for the 3 litters cola.

The faces of those that saw that for the first time was… interesting, and that is to say the least.

"Ahh~~, much better." Franky said with an ecstatic face. He then turned to the others in the room and said. "Now, I know what you guys want to ask me, and yes there will be more reinforcements. Rider is on her way here as we speak, but will take a while to get here, Kuroko is on the Tower and will come later today with the newest creation of the homunculi department."

Nodding their heads Rias and the others that were not from the Tower were feeling a bit uncomfortable. They basically pushed the problem on the Tower (what, the church was the one to lose the Excalibur fragments and if not for this being Gremory and Sitri territory the Tower would have no reason to get involved to help their allies) and now the Tower was the one to take the greater damage and was also the only one to send reinforcements. Heck, they sent bodyguards to protect the heiresses and if those bodyguards were with Castiel they could have gotten away from Kokabiel with no major problems.

And now they were sending one of their main fighters to this mess of theirs, a mess that their help is not the greatest.

Emily, completely ignoring what the others not from the Tower were thinking, continued.

"And why exactly isn't Rider just teleporting here? I mean, we do have some teleportation bases not far from where she is after all."

"Oh, that is a fun story." Franky says. "It is because the info about what happened to Castiel arrived when she and the others on Romania (A.K.A. the other top executives) were on a discussion about what they should do next, and when the information arrived she simply ran away summoning her Pegasus so as to fly towards here as soon as possible. If I were to bet she did not even think of the teleportation circles, she always cared a lot for Castiel, almost to the point of seeing him as her own child, so her actions were expected."

Emily and Bazet could not help but nod. Rider was always quite sadistic on their trainings, but those were just training and she had the philosophy of 'bleed now to not bleed latter' so she was merciless on her training. On the other hand, whenever it was not time for training she doted on him almost as much as Sakura, they had seen Castiel as their own child so they always tried to protect him whenever possible, so she acts like this when she heard of his condition was no less than expected.

They could only hope that this time around she would not decide to hunt down everyone involved with the perpetrator, last time that Castiel took some form of serious damage on this sort of scale was when a harpy almost managed to rip one of his legs.

This race doesn't exist anymore.

While thinking that Emily raised an eyebrow as she noticed something.

"Wait, do you mean that the new creation is done? Shouldn't it take a while more for it to be completed?" Emily asked s it was well known within the Tower that Illya was working for quite some time on a new project. She said that it would be strong enough to, with time, reach the Leader-class so it was expected for it to be amazing but even then it should have taken some more time for it to be done.

"Yeah, the new homunculi was not fully completed as it still has no battle experience and most of the mental capacity is still underdeveloped but the strength is still quite high so you should expect good things from it. It is still in the Tower so as to see how much is possible to input on her before it is released as after that it will have to learn just like anyone else." Franky explained, smiling a bit on imagining the faces of those fallen angels when they see what they had coming for them.

Emily nodded, a bit excited to see what will happen this night. 'Wait for us Castiel, we are coming to save you'.

* * *

Meanwhile on Kokabiel hideout

"Come on, I am not paying you to not do my pedicurist for you to slack off." A smug one-armed boy said to the terrified fallen angel named dumbitch (or Raynare for those who cared).

"But you are not paying me anything." Said the girl almost crying in humiliation.

"Oh, now that you mention it you are right." The boy said. "You can go to my fiancée and I can assure you that she will pay you for everything." And his smile saying that was brilliant.

"Let me do your toenails, I am going to do it even best now." The fallen said in an almost yell.

The boy nodded and said.

"After that, you can go and find me some fry chicken wings and potato chips for lunch."

"B-but we don't have any." The girl said.

"Oh, then you can go to my house and I can assure you that Yuno-chan will make some, the problem is that it might be your wings."

"I will search for the end of the world and find the very best ones there are!" the poor fallen angel said.

They then entered a peaceful silence, the one-armed boy using healing blessings to heal himself and the 'evil' fallen angel could do nothing but fear for her future.

Why her?

* * *

After that talks, they went right into the training area.

Issei went straight to the room that he was indicated before, he was going to fuse his flesh to some of Draig's.

Meanwhile, Xenovia was talking to Irina.

"Hey, Xenovia-chan why are you so down? Normal you would be the first one out there on the training ground." Irina asked with her normal smile, but deep inside she was just trying to distract herself as she heard the conversation between Issei and Draig.

She knew that he was going to be changed, he would go even more outside of what could be called human and seeing her friend doing that because he 'failed' her cut deep. But, she was not the type of girl that would interfere when someone she loves (as a friend, just as a friend, her childhood friend she thought about for the last few years almost every single day) was trying to get stronger.

Startled Xenovia looked to the side to see a grinning Irina.

"Irina, don't jump on me like that. You gave me quite the fright." Xenovia said to her best friend.

Irina tilted her head and said.

"But I approached you right from the front and didn't try to startle you in any way." Irina rebuked.

Xenovia wanted to give some form of an answer, but she knew her friend was probably right. She was completely out of it today.

"... Sorry, it is just that I am not in the right mind today. After last night I could only think how naive I was." Xenovia said. "It is just, I was the first one to be recognized by Durandal in so many years, the last one to be recognized was Vasco Prada-sama the best swordsman among all exorcists and one of the strongest humans alive. I believed I would be the same, and now? Now I had to see how inappropriate I am in handling a holy sword, had to run leaving someone behind just to save myself and could not do a damn thing right. I even made Allen-sempai waste more time handling my defense than in actually attacking, and he is best in attacking than me."

As Xenovia continued to talk she sit while hugging her knees and said.

"I feel so useless right now."

Irina saw this, gave a pained smile and said.

"You are not the only one." That got a response from Xenovia, which raised her head to look at her friend. "During this fight, I could only defend others, and even then I could not do a good job. I tried my best, but I depended a lot on Miku-chan to defend me as well and Issei had to use his balance breaker before the right time just so he could protect me from one of the fallen angels and if it was not for that we could probably have saved that for later. Then, then my Excalibur fragment wouldn't have been taken away. It was my fault, I was the one that did not manage to do things well."

As the two continued to talk and the depressing mood was getting heavier by the second someone decided to intervene.

"AAuuuhh, what are you girls SUPER doing there?" Franky said.

"I-It's nothing." Says a flustered Irina.

"It SUPER doesn't seem to be 'nothing' to me." Franky says.

Irina wanted to defend herself more, but she gave up and simply talked to him.

"It is because last night we, we were dead-weight. We helped a bit but we ended up messing things up more than fixing it." Irina says, on which Xenovia nodded.

Franky looked at the two and saw himself when he was young, feeling like trash after he almost failed in saving his adopted father. If it wasn't for the interference of Poseidon-sama his father would have died because of some fuckers that wanted him dead just because he was a fishmen, thankfully he was rescued and taken to Atlantis so as to get treatment. He was still there, old Tom was among the best builders there right now.

Despite this the young Franky was genius enough to go look for those offenders back then, the result was that he ended up almost dying. It was to such a point that he had to replace some of the parts from his body with robotic pieces.

But this machinery was exactly what gave him the strength to defeat those that wanted to kill his father, and it was thanks to his body being different that he was invited to the Tower where he got an even bigger family. And now that someone was attacking his family he would do the same as before and deal with those idiots accordingly.

And by accordingly he means with enough bullets and explosions that he might make even Michael Bay think it is too much. ( **Writer's Note: I am sorry if the use of real people's name offends them in any way, but I want to point out that I personally am a fan of his movies and rarely lose a single one. I am using his name here only because he is the first movie director that comes to my mind whenever I think of action films** )

However, the most important now was to give these girls some confidence.

"Hey, it cannot be that bad. I mean, no one died here and if you were not there it is possible that things would have been much worse. So cheer up girls, you can do this." Franky said.

Irina looked down and said.

"And how am I supposed to do that? I even lost my weapon."

Xenovia also was down as she said.

"And what about me and my awful defense and speed? I am just a human, my abilities are not that great."

Franky looked at the two, though for a while, and gave them a big grin.

"Don't you SUPER worry about this. Leave it to me." Franky said. "Never doubt the power of science, the power from mankind." As he said that Franky went out so as to catch some stuff, if the two were having trouble because they feel too weak he would solve this, after all, what has made humanity survive while on nature and be on this position on the world wasn't magic, but science and weapons. And these things were Franky specialty.

* * *

After a while the 2 exorcist girls stood up, no longer wanting to feel sorry for themselves. And as they approached the training grounds.

"AAuuuhh, sorry for making you wait." The man/cyborg said as he approached the two. He was caring some stuff on a small box, a grin on his face. "Here it is, some of my creations. Oh, and these are for you to use just during this battle and when you return to the church base you are to return as I don't want this on the sticky hands from some of their members."

The two girls did not like that comment and where just about to turn down the weapons, but before they could open their mouths they saw what he was carrying and these thoughts left their minds to be replaced by 'what the fuck is this?'.

"Eeh, Franky-san why are you giving us toys?" Irina asked while Xenovia could only nod. For the two these things could only be called toys, after all, what would a sword handle with no blade do? Or just a belt? the two simply could not understand what it meant.

"AAuuhhh, It is SUPER understandable for you do not understand the greatness from these, but they are far from 'just a toy'." Franky said. "First for you Irina-san. You said that you no longer had any weapon so I present you a sword to replace that one, its name is Z-saber."

As he said that he gave her the simple handle, which she could not understand. She had seen something similar from the light swords normally used by the exorcists, but this one felt heavier and she could not sense any holy ore in it (not even the one of awful quality normally used for low-level exorcists).

"And how exactly is this a sword?" Irina asked with a confused face.

Franky gave her a wide grin and said.

"Try to turn this little thing here." He said pointing to a circular button on the handle. as she turned it a laser sword was created from it.

It had around 40 centimeters, but the more she turned the bigger it grew with the max size being around 3 meters. With her eyes sparkling she tried to do some movements with it and she realized that it was absurdly light to use allowing for her to move it very fast.

"Try and use it here." Franky said while pointing to a metal plate of more than 1 meter of thickness. He was carrying it on his back so as to let the girl test the weapon. Irina nodded and gave a mighty horizontal swing, but after it passed through the plate it did nothing. Seeing her disappointed face Franky could not help but laugh a bit as he pushed the top part of the blade, separating the pate in two perfect pieces.

"B-but I felt no recoil! How can it just cut like that?" Irina asked.

"Because this is my SUPER new invention, the Z-saber. It is a laser sword that the 'blade' is a super concentrated light that can reach temperatures of over 2000° Celsius and spend close to no energy to maintain or use. It can be charged with batteries or the magic energy from the user, whatever is available is good for it. It even comes with the capacity of changing the size and I am finishing the details necessary for it to change its form as well." Franky explained. "It even allows for charging its energy to release shockwaves from it as well, depending on the charging time the energy increases or decreases."

Irina could only look with wonder at the Z-saber. It was like an evolved and more awesome form of the light swords used by most exorcists.

"And as for these." He said pointing at the belts, one with a blue color while the other had a red tone. "These are retractable armors that you can use whenever you need. They can allow for your physical parameters increase to be comparable to what most mid high-class being that focuses on the body can achieve. It is no different than the boost given on a Queen Piece on a devil's peerage. Again, it can be charged with special batteries or by the user's own magic energy." The eyes of the two girls shinned a lot seeing those two belts now. "Go on, you can use them and do remember to tell me what you think of later."

The two girls were nodding their heads so fast that it was almost like their necks would break. Laughing at this reaction he gave the two belts to the two girls, originally these were supposed to go for Emily and Yuno so as to help them a bit, but he could not help himself in wanting to help these two young girls.

As the two took the belts they put them on and pressed the buttons, a light armor was released from it covering their entire bodies. The armor was composed of arm guards, leg guards, a chest plate and the connecting parts being on black. The difference between the two being that Xenovia had blue armor with a helmet with a smooth red crystal right on the middle of her forehead with two golden extensions leaving from it on an X shape while Irina's red armor had a blue crystal and two sleek metal protrusions leaving from said crystal till the back of her head.

The two girls could not help but admire their armors and want to go and test them out right then and there, but before they left to do it they both gave a polite bow to Franky and said.

"Thank you, Franky-aniki!"

"AAuuhh, don't SUPER worry about that, now go and test my weapons." Franky said with the two girls nodding their heads and looking at him with respect. Well, he is a natural 'aniki' after all, but the one thing the two could not help but wonder was, 'why is he still using only swimming briefs?'.

Well, not everyone is perfect after all. But he damn well gets close to be.


	70. Chapter 64

3° person P.O.V.

The day passed fast. As the training progressed they went training until around 5 PM, it was as far as they could go or else they might not be at the fullest capacity when it is time to the fight.

Xenovia and Irina were in love with the new armors, they felt like they had grown at least three or four times stronger when using them, and the one that appreciated the most was Irina due to her new weapon.

The Z-saber was much easier and fast to use than Excalibur Mimic, and while it did not have the holy attribute that the Excalibur had it more than made up with how easier it is to use. The cutting power was much greater and the energy she had to use to keep the sword active was quite small, it was even possible to turn the energy into mater if she wanted to defend herself as it could create a barrier.

She honestly thought that she would rather keep using it instead of the Excalibur, I just felt more natural as she was not born a natural user but was artificially modified. She has heard rumors of the experiments, apparently, it was a research that steams from the Iscariots which made her always feel a bit dirty to use it.

And the fact that it had to do with removing part of someone else's affinity with light energy and transferring it to herself, her only relieve was that those people were still alive and well (or so she heard, the church did go to the middle east for these experiments after all).

But back to her new weapon, she was falling in love with it. Her every move was much lighter and she experimented taking damage once with a light spear from Emily (it is best to know how these armor handle fallen angels after all) and she was very pleased to see that the damage to the armor was small and it recovered by itself with time. According to Franky it had to do with the fact that the Biometal armors had an auto repair function installed on them that used energy to repair the damage received, it was only possible due to the use of a special shape-memory alloy called Wapometal that can be changed and recovered easily, the power of science was amazing.

Now that the training on cooperation finished and they managed to think over their fights the night before they were much more ready to face the fight tonight. The only problem is that there was still no sign of Rider and she was the key person to defeat Kokabiel himself, the others here did not have the capacity of killing him at all. Defeat maybe but killing him was just not going to happen (when someone reaches super-class they become absurdly hard to kill, their bodies become very durable to the point that even damaging them becomes a chore).

As it reached 6 PM they were getting worried about what would happen, and it was at that instant when they saw something approaching fast, fast in like they could barely even see it move as it teleported towards them every 300 meters.

Bazet was about to go give her baby girl a hug (she was an absurdly doting mom after all, and this time around Kuroko did not make a mess so it was a plus), but as soon as Kuroko appeared in front of them she put a hand in front of her in the sign to stop.

"Haaaa, haaaaa, haaaaaahhh. That was very tiring." Kuroko said. She then looked all around, looking for someone she was missing immensely. Tilting her head a bit, she said. "Hey, where is Onii-sama?"

The confusion among those who heard her was quite great, they all believed that she should already know about it as it was inconceivable for her not to know it.

However, it was understandable as for the why Rin chose not to inform Kuroko of what happened. If she knew there was simply no way that she would ever remain in the Tower and she would have rushed straight here, or even just go straight to Kokabiel's hideout (which was about as well hidden as a black man among a KKK meeting).

Before anyone could step forward and try to explain things to her, Kuroko turned around and unfolded a magic circle that was drawn into a paper that she was carrying. She even said.

"I get it; he probably is down on the basement training so as to protect me." When Kuroko said that Bazet and the others there could only show a pained expression as they understood that Kuroko knew almost nothing of what really happened. "He's always so worried about protecting us, I have to also step up my game. I just have to conclude the teleportation circle real fast here before entering the house, I just want to see him already. Aahh, I want to go see Onii-sama right now."

And as she finished talking she completed the magic circle thus preparing the necessary procedures to bring the other auxiliary for this mission.

A flash happened and as it receded someone was standing there. It was a girl with around 18 years old appearance wise, she had long blond almost white hair with two large bangs on the side locked in place by white ribbons. She also had crystal deep-blue eyes, a small delicate nose, a body that looks so delicate that with one hug could break, D-cup boobs that strangely enough made her look even more doll-like and a skin extremely white and tender to the eyes. She was like a perfect masterpiece that even Gods would feel jealous of the appearance, she was an entity that managed to put together the delicateness of a doll, the sexiness of a succubus, the dignity of a noble queen, and the aura of untouchable from a goddess. This newcomer was that unreasonable of a being, she was to the point that even the girls when looking at her were lost in her eyes for some time.

She was wearing a normal plain white dress, but even it could do nothing to hide how stunning this woman was.

"Hello to you all." The girl said, her voice did not show much in the way of emotions which was a bit sad considering how even so her voice was almost as beautiful as Miku's. "My name is Ilyaelia Flameheart, I am a homunculus created with the objective of help and protect Castiel Emiya-sama. Now, where is my protection target?"

It was at that moment that they understood that this unnaturally beautiful and unfair existence was the latest project from the homunculi department. Now that they finally stopped being in a stupor they noticed something else, that her magic energy was VERY strong. She was just born but it was clear to see that she had about the same amount of energy as someone in the high ultimate-class and it was possible that she still had room for growth.

Illya did say that she would create the best possible homunculus that she ever did, after all, one that used herself as a base-model but with much more potential and stronger body. It was even known that she got DNA samples from many people across the whole world for this, all incredible and powerful with many goddesses involved as well. If Bazet remembered right there was some DNA from Lady Phoenix, Amaterasu (Goddess of the Sun from the Japanese Pantheon), Gloo from the Norse Mythology (she is a queen goddess of fire from the Norse Pantheon), Sekhmet (lioness Goddess of the sun and fire), and a few more.

She was closer to a demi-goddess than a human, and she had more than powerful enough to prove. Illya even speculated that this one was almost impossible to make another and that she had the potential of reaching leader-class.

And she now was a bodyguard, and to make it even more absurd her protection target isn't even here.

Taking a breath so as to calm down Emily took a step forward and talked to her.

"It is nice meeting you Ilyaelia Flameheart-san, my name is Emily Fujimura. I know you have some questions for us but we should all enter right now so as to peacefully talk things out."

Ilyaelia agreed to it, for her all that mattered was going to protect Castiel as she was programmed to do and it was her first priority.

As she was entering the place Kuroko was right behind, thinking it strange that she has not smelled Castiel (in her own opinion) dreamy smell (her father was known as the HOUND of Ireland and she had an absurdly good sense of smell).

After entering the place, the first thing the two newcomers saw was Yuno trying to create a hole in the floor, and she was being quite successful since the hole was over 50cm deep by now. After they noticed that they saw a girl sitting with her back against the wall, she had long indigo hair, a beautiful face, and a well-developed body. But what caught the attention of others was how she was looking at nothing with very vacant and vigilant eyes, as if she believed that at any time something would jump at her to attack. The only thing keeping her calm was the brown dog familiar sitting beside her, as it helped her to think that he was also by her side.

That particular scene sounded way too many alarms on Kuroko's mind.

She mechanically turned in a very slow motion to her mother and asked.

"Where is Onii-sama?"

"Kuroko, he-he…"

"WHERE IS HE?!" the young girl yelled.

Seeing this the other in the room could not help but drop their heads and decide to explain what happened.

"WHAT?! He lost an arm, his right arm no less, and you guys passed the whole day sitting here doing nothing?!"

Bazet wanted to leave it all for Emily to take care of this, part to help train her as to how to deal with this situations, but mostly because she was feeling like she let her daughter and disciple down. She knew perfectly well for years now that her daughter was even more obstinate and head-strong than herself and her husband combined and that she wanted to be with Castiel, it was even more clear than a sunny day after all, so she being so close by and this happening to him, it did not sit well with her either.

But, before anyone could say anything they all felt the temperature of the whole room rising, and it was rising fast. All that heat was being liberated by the expressionless Ilyaelia that was sitting on a chair that was quickly turning to charcoal. Said homunculi opened her mouth and said.

"Where is master right now?" those words were said in an extreme cold fashion, contrasting immensely with the heat that she was releasing.

Gulping a bit Emily said.

"He is with Kokabiel, and he is safe for now. He will be used in some sort of ritual later tonight in Kuoh Academy and we plan to intercept the ritual when it is about to start as it is likely the best time for doing so."

"And why you think that? Why not attack right now?" The homunculi woman asked.

"Because" Bazet intervened, knowing that her words had more weight than Emily's and that if this situation was not resolved fast it is possible that the whole house would be set on fire "We received intel straight from him due to Eevee right there, so we know that nothing major will happen to him right now. And we are not attacking because we don't know if he has any sort of traps in there, because they could use him as bargain chip, and to catch any and all possible accomplices all at once since it is more likely for them to all go and make sure that the whatever plan they have in mind works. Also, we want to reunite as much force as possible before we move."

For a few more seconds the temperature remained stiflingly high but slowly it came down to the same temperature of before. Ilyaelia had calmed down as she understood the situation clearly enough, she was after all imputed with much military knowledge so as to better help Castiel in the future.

Kuroko kept glaring at everyone in the room before standing up and start walking towards the basement. She had some tension that she needed to relieve before she could even begin to think about anything else, she even felt her sacred gear reacting to her emotions somewhat, but before she could think about that she had to try and put all the anger she was feeling out of her system before she could even think of what it may mean.

Ilyaelia also stood up and went to the training grounds too, she had also been imputed information about its structure so she knew it would likely be useful for her since she wanted to test her powers and see exactly what she could do.

Sighing in defeat Emily decide to lie down for a bit, as the time for action approached she was feeling more and tenser. It was not just her, everyone else was also feeling quite stressed out and they all wanted to go out and show what they got and finish things already.

And it was with that mindset that something happened.

RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR

A roar surged from the basement area, a large amount of draconic energy with it. It ripped through the air, tearing through it like a bloodhound on a rampage. It filled the air with its presence, increasing the density until it was almost physical and forced the others to the ground. It even caused them to start sweating waterfalls with how intense the energy was. The energy that was overwhelming quickly calmed down and went back to more acceptable levels, but the shock caused by it was still felt by most there. If there was one exception, it would have been the...

STAB STAB STAB STAB

Yuno as she was too busy dealing with things very well thus she had no time or desire to bother with some 'screaming lizard'.

When the energy receded there were two people that raced towards their origin, knowing what it was that caused it. The two people being Koneko and Irina, both very worried about the boy that was most definitely the responsible for this energy pulse.

As the two approached the room where he was they saw the door opening and one very tired looking boy coming out, his shoulders slouched and his legs trembling from his recent experience. He only had some rags covering his body as most of his clothes just disintegrated when the fusion of his flesh and Draig's concluded, but he honestly couldn't care less. Glancing down to his hand, Issei clenched and unclenched it, feeling tremendous power welling within. The power of the dragon. He was feeling that his body grew many times more powerful, so much so that he now felt that he would be capable of using his balance breaker for 5 minutes instead of the two or three that Draig had said before.

When he was just about to start commemorating he felt two missiles jumping straight at him.

"Ouch, what is goin-" he could only go that far because he saw the faces of both Koneko and Irina, the two with beginnings of tears in their eyes.

"I was so worried, you baka!" the Exorcist exclaimed, burying her face into his chest. The brown haired teen nearly lost control over his jaw when he fet a wetness there, her tears leaking out to show how worried she was. "Never, ever, ever, EVER do something this crazy again, do you understand Issei-san?!" Irina shouted, refusing to let him go for even a second, like if she did then he would vanish and never come back.

Koneko nodded, hugging him just as tightly as the other girl. Her words were non-existent, but her actions spoke volumes about how much worry pooled in her gut for the pervert. Her arm strength had been firm enough that Issei wondered if she wants to fuse with him or something.

He could only give a pained smile at their antics, placing his hands on their heads and rubbing them in a comforting manner in an attempt to calm them down.

"Sorry, but I had to do it." He said, trying hard not to let his mind waver from the feeling of the two girls hugging him. Their bodies and smell were absurdly stimulant to him, but he managed to control himself somehow (but he did put these thoughts and the images he imagined on his mind for his later 'working-out' of the right arm's biceps). "Also, I can't say I won't do something like that again cause I'd be lying." he told them, and just when they made to yell at him Issei continued. "Please, lemme explain. I can't just be weak anymore, I need to get stronger. I will do everything and anything in my power to get strong enough to protect my friends, and in the end I will always still be me."

That wasn't something they wanted to hear, and it made them feel worried for the future. If what Issei said was true, and deep down they BOTH had a feeling it would happen eventually, then the next time he needed to get a boost in power that training couldn't provide, he would be reduced to the state he was in right now perhaps worse. That didn't sit well with them, not one bit.

On Issei's end, his mind whirled with thoughts on his latest revelation. Or rather, something he had learned from both Castiel and the recent battle. That battle with Raiser had been the start of it, but then Castiel began to open his eyes to the truth a little more, like slowly wedging a door open. He couldn't continue how he was, not if he wanted to be a harem king like Castel was becoming (damn ikemen). He had to get stronger, cause if what those two taught him was true, then there would be people out there whom would be able to walk all over him whenever they pleased. That last battle had all but confirmed it, much to his humiliation. He had felt like an utter waste of space, a pathetic weakling.

That sense of uselessness... he remembered it from when he first fought in that rating game, on how he'd sworn to not let happen again, and yet it did. He was unable to do much during that battle, hell his strongest power the Balance Breaker couldn't even be used for a time period worthy of battle, and against his comrades wiser decisions he used it to help Irina anyways, if he was stronger he could have left the balance breaker and still be capable of fighting, but he was not and thus became a burden to those he wanted to help. That had the end result of him not being able to save Irina's Excalibur from being taken, which unbeknownst o anyone made him punch the ground in frustration.

He refused to let that stand though, thus all those instances combined together and resulted in him seeking out a way to attain power from Ddraig.

He also figured that he wasn't the only one who knew they needed to get stronger, either. After all, he did notice that there were some new changes made to Irina's appearance.

speaking of the Exorcist, Irina raised her face from his chest and looked at him in the eyes.

"And what ARE the repercussions?" She questioned, a mix of worry and sternness in her tone. Koneko did not move at all but her cat ears were straight up aimed at him as if trying to hear more clearly.

The one to answer, however, was not Issei. Draig decided to intervene for fear of his partner explaining things half-assedly. He wasn't the kind of guy wo got complicated things, after all.

"Nothing much has changed. He still is a reincarnated devil, but now he is closer to what a decedent from me would be like." Draig explained, nearly surprising the girls and Issei though they remained in their current positions. Yet, all of them snuck an eye down to the newly formed gauntlet where they could hear Ddraig's voice. "His senses are now sharper, his body much tougher, and he has a principle of a magic core on him. It still is very weak but it will make sure that he will hardly ever fully ran out of magic energy. Also, his mind remained exactly the same except for one difference in that his libido now is more focused only on those he has some degree of compatibility with in exchange for it to be much stronger than before to the point that he not doing with them for too long will be almost impossible for him." At that, the two young virgin girls (and the virgin boy too) blushed like mad. "If anything I never proposed to do this before because my meat and blood are quite limited and before he was quite the disappointing host, I was actually waiting to meet the white one so as to go for my next host." At THAT little information, all three of them glared at the gauntlet/sacred gear housing Draig's spirit. "But he managed to grow into something useful with time. A host I can approve and call partner, so I went ahead and used some of what I had left of my body. If he shows even promise I might even use one of my last few bones I have to change his whole body bone structure, but for now his body would not be capable of handling one of my bones at all. Perhaps, if he really surprises me, I will give him the piece of my heart so as to make his organs and everything else strong enough to not have to fear anyone else."

Well, at least this meant that Issei can expect some new improvements soon enough. That was quite the good news for him as, in the future, the enemies WILL become much, much more dangerous than Kokabiel, but this is a story for the future.

As he was about to start taking more with the two lovely girls someone else stood in front of him. She was breathtakingly gorgeous, but he felt that even if he would probably fap for her latter there would never be a connection between the two.

"Excuse me, would you mind getting out of the way? I have to use this room." The new girl said, in which Issei could only dumbly nod his head and do as she says. She was simply that gorgeous.

After she passed through him he felt two forces on his sides, the two girls were pinching him just enough to create bruises on him, and his body was VERY strong now. It is as so many sages said, a jealous woman is the most terrifying being in the world.

As he was about to talk about something to relieve the pressure the two girls were putting on him Draig spoke up.

"Issei, no matter what you are not to get on that woman's way."

That little bit made Issei surprised to say the very least. He has never heard Draig say such things about anyone else since he met Syrzechs before the rating game, so hearing him say such words again ringed quite a few bells on his mind... not the good kinds, either.

"Is she that powerful?" Issei asked.

"It is not that she is absurdly powerful, but the fact is that I feel like she has many different powers fusing together on her and if she is to ever completely fuse said powers she would be the nemesis of someone like us since among those powers there is also a dragon-slayer, holy, and divine flame on her, even the flames of the three fire supreme GodBeasts, True Phoenix, Vermilion Bird and the Golden Crow. You ought to remember to always stay vigilant to anything holy and especially anything with dragon slayer proprieties, those two type of things are your worst nightmare." Ddraig explained, a mix of grimness and dare he says it, anxiety in that booming voice of his.

Issei was not that convinced, he could not feel that much power in the girl after all so for him she could not be that dangerous. What he did not know is that Ilyaelia also had knowledge of how to suppress her own energy.

Not even ten seconds later he started to understand how bad of an idea messing with her was, after all that room was nigh-unbreakable and completely sealed off but standing over ten meters away from there was becoming hard due to how hot the air was turning.

He decided to get as far away from there and it just so happened that Irina started telling him to come and see her new weapons, she was jumping all around in excitement just as when they were kids. She still is just like he remembered on the past, she has always been a very energetic girl loving to go out and keep moving around, and whenever she got anything of interesting she would go out of her way to show it to him too.

The fond smile on his face was quite obvious, and this time even Koneko did not interfere. This moment was for the two of them.

* * *

On another room Kuroko was finishing punching a steel plate, she managed to release some of her frustrations on it and considering that it had a dent of more than 30cm deep in it you could say that there was quite a lot that she had to release.

But, now that she got that she put a smile on her face. Even if everything else was bad she at least had some good news, she had finally completed one Fragarach and she could feel that she was very close to getting something she was trying to get for quite some time and there was no better time to obtain it than now.

After all, now that the balance between the two sides was quite closer than before what they needed was a **balance breaker**.

* * *

In Kokabiel's hideout, Lugh finally got to talk with her father. She finally understood everything and she accepted what she should do next, who she will be pointing her sword at, and for more than it pained her she would point it toward Emily and the others.

It was the only way for her.

* * *

Somewhere else on the hideout Kokabiel was smiling. He had just received wonderful news from his collaborator and even obtained some new reinforcements in the form of some of the exorcists from Iscariots in exchange for some intel about entering methods to the underworld. It would not be easy for them to do it anyway and he could not be any happier about it as even if they got there they would aim at the devils. And the help was more than welcome as they would serve as guards to protect the ritual and Galilei because the two must not be wounded or disturbed during the ritual.

"Is everything proceeding as planned?" A voice said, disturbing Kokabiel's mood. But even if it was this way he would not do anything against this person. With time he learned who to provoke and who not to, and this guy and his group were completely and utterly taboo, he would rather fight against God again than with some of them as he felt his chances of running away from God were higher than the surviving him or his allies.

Bowing his head slightly so as to show respect Kokabiel said.

"Yes, everything is going according to the plans. In a few hours, I will obtain the power of the first seal while breaking it. After that I will start the war by killing the two devil heiresses, thus creating an inevitable dispute between the three factions, thus serving as a 'smokescreen' for the breaking of the other seals."

The man heard the words and nodded his head.

"It is good that you understand, my master isn't a forgiving person and he would not see kindly if you failed this." The man said seriously.

Kokabiel was doing what he could to not show the absolute terror that he felt towards this, this being. He was stronger than him, faster than him, more powerful than him, regenerate faster than him, and his powers to erase anyone else from existence was not something Kokabiel would ever want to face off against, and this is not to talk about his master, he used to be a pain to deal with but since recently he turned into a veritable walking disaster that Kokabiel knew not to mess with. Taking a deep breath so as to calm his nerves Kokabiel could only say a few words before this person disappeared from this space.

"Understood, Vanilla Ice-Sama!"


	71. Chapter 65

3° Person P.O.V.

It was now fast approaching mid-night. It was time to move out and everyone was brimming with desire for battle. The feelings were multiple, from the desire to protect the others, the desire for revenge for the last night, the desire for destroying those who invaded their home city and were making a mess out of it, and of course the desire to save their captured ally.

As the time approached some of them were talking by deciding what actions they should take. Those having this discussion were Rias, Sona, Allen, and Emily.

"So, who will be making the barrier?" Emily said.

Rias and Allen looked confused, but Sona understood what she meant.

"Is this your way of saying that we must contain the damage to the city itself?" Sona asked, more for confirmation than anything else.

"Yes, everything will finish tonight but we cannot keep people locked in that dimension forever. Even the workers from the underworld would not be fast enough to fix a city of this scale within an acceptable time frame if there were few personal, especially considering the damage that would appear in case a fight with a super-class being happens. They ARE known for being capable of destroying a big city like Kuoh in four or five serious attacks, after all." Emily said, making the others understand what she meant.

Rias nodded her head after she understood what she meant. They could not keep the civilians out in that sealed space for much longer or it would create too many problems later on, there might even be talks about just killing them off as it was a very common tactic on the medieval times and most of the devil council were used to do such acts anyway. Rias did not want to have the blood of dozens of thousands in her hands, and if they did not act carefully this just might happen.

"Ok, I understand what you mean. But, who should be the ones keeping a barrier?" Rias asked.

"I think my peerage with someone from yours should suffice Rias." Sona proposed. "I think Koneko would be the best option since she is somewhat capable with sensing the flow of life energy and probably can make the barrier stronger."

Rias wanted to retort, but she could not find any words to rebuke. Issei and Kiba had close to zero capacity with barrier magic and their magic reserves were not impressive so they would not be useful there, Akeno was an important firepower so she also couldn't do it and Rias was even more out of question as she wanted to do nothing more than to destroy every fallen angel that attacked her town.

But, a question appeared on her head.

"You do not seriously expect that they alone can keep a barrier that can contain this amount of power, right? We need some more help in that area." Rias said.

Allen decided to intervene.

"How about having Caren there too? She is good with barrier magic as it is related to sealing magic so she should be capable of that much." He said. "I will even go there and help protect them all as who knows if someone will try to attack them from the back."

Sona raised an eyebrow and said.

"Won't that leave just Irina and Xenovia to fight on the main battle? Why not just send someone from the Tower there as they are the most numerous group here?"

Allen could only laugh nervously while Emily smiled sweetly as she said.

"Do you really think that any of us are on the right state of mind to not go and fight on the main battlefield?"

And as soon as she finished that they heard the sound of something breaking on the underground followed by Kuroko appearing and saying.

"Sorry, I was just punching a wall so as to relieve my stress when I accidentally thought of Castiel's condition and… well, at least now there is more open space in the basement, no more wall there and all that." And at that moment she seemed to have thought of something and said. "Oh, and just a heads up but the twins ended up destroying the wind room and Ilyaelia melted the door of the 'unbreakable' room. Now if you excuse me I will go check my arsenal of black-keys and needles, maybe coating them with poison too for an added bonus." As she finished that the 13 years old girl teleported away.

At the same time, they saw Franky walk past them with a missile launcher on his shoulders while carrying a special gun which barrel was thicker than their own bodies.

Yep, the guys from the Tower would not be content in staying in the side-lines at all.

Seeing this Rias, Sona, and Allen gave bitter smiles as they knew that they were more helpers than anything else right now.

Rias than thought for a while and said.

"I will also leave Kiba to defend on the outside, leaving just you to defend the barrier would be asking too much." She said to Allen, which nodded to her words.

With the plans completed, they set out to action.

Immediately they all went out, going steadily towards Kuoh Academy. Everyone was walking together without stopping at all, that is until someone appeared in their way. It was a fallen angel of mid-class with an over-coat covering most of his body.

"Hello to all of you, my name is Dohnasek and I have come with a message from Kokabiel-sama. It is to tell you to not disturb him as-"

The fallen tried to say something more, but he did not have time for that. The reason why? Well, the fact that he was burned to a crisp by Ilyaelia in one move may have been the reason, or it might have been his head that was blown away by one shot from Franky, or even the multiple holes opened in his body by a barely reacting Yuno.

Who knows?

But, the important part is that now there was no more turning back, not that they needed it anyway. And to prove that point a shot was released from far away and it almost hit Kuroko's head, but in the instant when it was centimeters from her she teleported away from that spot. It was so close and fast exchange that most did not realize that she even escaped since there was still an after image.

And the fact was that before they could react more gunshots were released towards them from other 4 directions. Even arriving in the school would not be such an easy job, everyone started to search for hiding places so as to avoid the gun bullets.

Normal bullets would not be much at all to them, but these ones were strange since they could go right through any magic defense so most people there could only hide and search for the attackers.

Well, most people.

"You take the leftmost one, Irina, I will go for the rightmost one." Xenovia said while activating her blue biometal (she had learned that it was called **model X** )

"Understood." Irina said activating her own biometal (named model Z) and her Z-saber.

"AAuuhh, And I SUPER will take care of the other three." Franky said while fully ignoring the bullets hitting him and covering for Yuno as she was simply un-responsive to anything else around her.

"Hai, Franky-aniki!" The two shouted while sprinting towards their targets.

* * *

Xenovia dashed through the streets to where the rightmost shooter was located, slashing through what bullets would have hit her with Durandal while making use of whatever cover was available. She could see the shooter in the distance as she moved, and like a predator getting a visual on its prey, Xenovia pounced.

She dashed to the rightmost shooter like a murderous hound. He was a man wearing a special body armor that was made to absorb shocks of anything bellow high mid-class, it wasn't easy to make item, proving how high the investment put into this person was, but in the end it was all for nothing since Xenovia just rushed toward him and slashed with Durandal while releasing a white beam of light energy that destroyed him and everything else around him.

Looking at the destruction Xenovia was again impressed by how strong her weapon was becoming since she started trying to reach out for it properly, it was at least 40% stronger than before and it was showing no signs that this growth in power would be stopping. However, it also made her pissed off at herself for never even trying to reach out for her sword properly, to have treated her partner as simply a weapon while it was such an amazing object made her realize again that she was still learning.

She would grow stronger and this was something she was sure about.

* * *

Irina was feeling absurdly exuberated from what she was now capable off. This armor was strong enough that she barely had to do anything to protect herself, she was also much faster than before and ever her strength was higher. It was like she was a better version of herself, and she would use this to cut down the ones that were aiming at Issei and the others.

Her target was around 30 meters from her, and he started to move. He took out a grenade and launched it on her direction, hoping to at least stun her long enough for him to get away from there. Unfortunately for him, she was not so simple to deal with, Irina moved her hand in an extremely fluid fashion to as to cut down the grenade while also putting her arm in front of the exposed areas from her body but it was unnecessary due to the armor being capable of releasing an energy field that could help defend against debris and other non-magical elements. It was added to the armor so as to avoid the need of protecting the eyes from sand and debris when the fighting becomes too intense, but it also could do what she did just now.

Not stopping her legs Irina continued moving so as to reach her target. He tried to react, but all Irina had to do was move her hands slightly and he died bisected in two.

Seeing that she helped, that she was not just working on defending but was actually helping in the fight, well it meant a lot to her. Now she felt that she would finally be strong enough to defend herself, and maybe, just maybe, she would not worry Issei anymore.

* * *

Franky saw the two girls running to the two sides and smiled a bit, but a shot dangerously close to his nether region made him forget about that smile.

"You want to aim at me like that? I will give you guys something to aim at!" Then the rocket launcher on his shoulders seemed about to start when he said. " **Weapons Left** " and launched bullets from his left hand's Gatling gun.

The others watching could only drop their heads, why did he seem about to launch missiles if he would just use his left hand in the end?

Well, the answer is simple, because he wanted to.

And boy were these bullets he launched powerful. They were specially designed to accelerate with time due to small propulsors on them, making them much faster than normal bullets. Also, due to them being filled with a specially designed powder inside they had one more effect beside advanced speed.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

They ALL were extremely explosives when on impact.

Rias and Sona seeing the signs of three buildings over 800 meters away being destroyed just like this could only release a bit of cold sweat, the image of the amount of paperwork that they will have to do to explain this was not an appealing image. This being doubly true for Rias since she now had to do it on triplicates and it could only be signed by her so she had even more work on this front now than Sona. Again, another decision from the elders.

Fucking elders.

They must still be salty towards her for what she said after beating Raiser, though she didn't realize that.

Surprisingly enough there were no more attacks on their way it was almost as if they were being invited to go there, as if this was EXACTLY what Kokabiel wanted, and it truly was.

He wanted to fight, to face difficulties on his entire way and the only reason he sent Dohnasek to tell them that message was to see their reaction.

When they were closing in on the school they saw that there were many enemies there, even more than the total of before and that the energy on the air was many magnitudes higher than normal. And it was increasing with time as well, almost like a dam that was about to break apart and the water started to be released faster and faster.

Sona and Rias signed for the ones responsible for keeping the barrier to start their work. Thankfully they had time to obtain a special barrier technique that could help contain the damage, it was good but far from enough if they wanted to contain someone of the super-class. Thus most of Sona's Peerage (everyone except for Sona and Tsubaki), Allen, Caren, Kiba, and Koneko stayed behind so as to maintain the barrier.

If there was anything good from the current setting it was that the energy in the air would make the barrier stronger than expected, with luck it was even possible to keep it up even against 1 strike from a super-class.

This energy, however, was too powerful to be normal. In fact, when they entered the school grounds they saw what was happening exactly. There was a light pillar in the middle of a really big magic circle, one that was rotating slowly with more and more energy being released by the second as the pillar grew faster and faster.

And there, right in the center of it, there were the six Excalibur Fragments that were slowly disintegrating as the energy from the pillar was being pushed at them. But this was not important, not at all when compared with what was being used as the pathway for this energy.

It was Castiel.

He was locked in place with some golden chains that were fused on his own body, a mute scream on his lips as the energy from the world wreaked havoc inside him. The pain he was feeling was the worse he ever felt, it was like his blood was being replaced by magma and the energy passing through his body and soul was only get stronger and stronger. He was no longer capable of rational thoughts, such was the pain he felt running throughout his existence.

"CASTIEL/DARLING/CASTIEL-SAMA/ONII-SAMA!"

The girls all called out the name of their beloved (save for Sona and Rias), their anger momentarily fading into the backs of their minds as mute horror replaced it. Pain laced through the girls that had romantic attractions towards him as well as those who saw him as a family member/friend, seeing him in such a state.

"Wh-what the hell...?!" Sona gasped, her glasses almost falling off her face as she stared at the sight before her. There were various runes, seals, and other magics at work here, all moving along like different cogs in a machine. Whatever they were doing she could not even begin to imagine. It looked way too complex for her to decipher right now, and even if she could she felt like it would take her years to even get a grasp of what was happening here. But, what she DID get was that it was all revolving around using Castiel's body as a medium of some sorts, the energy was passing through him in large quantities that she KNEW must be horrifically painful for him.

Rias could only gape at what she was seeing, not understanding nearly as much as her friend did.

Meanwhile, a certain masculine voice broke the silence and shattered their previous stupors.

"Ah, you all have finally arrived, I see..."

Looking to the source, ALL of the group felt their horror get replaced with primal fury, a fury that burned within them like a firestorm at the sight of the speaker who just lazily sat on his floating throne drinking wine from a goblet, like watching their friend suffer like this was nothing but entertainment to him. Pretty boring entertainment too, considering the bored, dismissive look that he had on his features.

Kokabiel.

The man wore his suit, but that wasn't the only thing he wore now. Instead of just a suit, the man wore this black and gold knight-like Armour, Armour that seemed relevant to the middle ages and would probably make him stick out like a sore thumb in modern day society. The Armour gave off a wicked yet holy appearance, radiating it along with the malice that it's wearer contained within. The more intellectual of the group (Sona and the members of the tower) recognized this Armour as Kokabiel's personal Armour, the set that he had created himself with his power to fight with during the Great War between the three factions. Interestingly enough, this Armour also covered his wings too, encasing them with black metallic blade-like feathers and golden bones. Made him look intimidating as fuck, but hey not like they cared about their current mental states. But one detail some of the more attentive noticed was that the right arm had small incongruencies compared to the rest of the armor.

"You...!"

Emily growled, her eyes shining as her power radiated a fiery aura around her, influenced by her anger. Kokabiel idly glanced down at her, before going back to his wine.

"It seems that those fools called the Maou aren't coming after all if they sent you whiny brats in their stead. They must not think much of me as I am right now, what foolish beings they are." he remarked casually as if talking about the weather. Hiding underneath his hatred not only towards the four Maous but also to his 'incomplete' situation, something he would rectify soon enough.

Not something that would alleviate the furious siblings' emotions, but hey not like he cared about them, in fact, he could eliminate them right now if he wanted. But where would the fun in that be?

"Your actions have gone too far, Kokabiel!" Rias bellowed, even though the Fallen Angel didn't give her much of an indication that he was listening. "For daring to attack my territory, to attack the territory of Leviathan, and for unauthorized conduct, we will be the ones to silence you today!" True, she just sounded confident, but deep down she had a good grasp of how tall that order seemed. They would have to play it smart if they wanted to win this.

Instead of being threatened by that comment, the Fallen Angel merely sighed, disappointment within his being as he swerved the goblet of wine in his hand while staring at his reflection within the liquid. "What a boring event... I had hoped for something better, but I suppose I will have to make due with what I have at the moment. From what THEY told me, this ritual shouldn't be much longer now. Hopefully, those tower fools will make some form of entertainment for me while I wait. Boring, oh so boring..." He muttered to himself.

He didn't even register the Gremory or the Sitri Peerages as threats to him, that was a testament to the little to no fucks he gave about them.

"Why are you doing this, Kokabiel?!" Sona questioned, glaring up towards the man on his aerial throne. She didn't know how long her Queen would last when she saw how much pain her beloved looked to be in so she had better get this over with quickly. "What's the point of all this?! Don't you realize how bad a war right now would impact the world?! The last Great War ended for a reason, you know!"

Emily shook her head as she scowled at the Sitri Heiress. "It's no use, Sona." she remarked while flaring her Fallen Angel Wings, the older member of her kind slightly glancing at them with SLIGHT intrigue. "This asshole lives for nothing but war and conflict. He's a damn warmonger who'll do anything for a possible fight."

In response to that, Kokabiel gave a dark, creepy chuckle for the first time since they met in Kuoh Academy's courtyard, finally pulling his attention from the wine and looking down at the girl. "I think you have been misinformed, young spawn of Azazel." he sneered, making her bristle at the reference to her being that man's daughter. "It is often said that I like war. But you know what, brats? It is not that I LIKE war..." he explained, his smile soon widening into a grin as his eyes began to tremble like they were shaking from an earthquake. "I... LOVE war!"

Standing up from his throne with various clinking sounds coming from his Armour, Kokabiel continued, his look becoming ever more twisted. "I love holocausts, I love genocides, I love pre-emptive strikes on enemy positions, of razing entire encampments to the ground under a sea of flame. I love defensive lines, I love sieges, both on the outside and the inside of an encampment. I love mop-up operations and even retreats! I love wars on the ground, in the air, the seas, the streets, I love every aspect of the war that you can think of that can happen on this earth! I love close combat, the feeling of inflicting and being dealt pain by my enemies! I love ranged combat, the feeling of shelling my enemies with Light Spears or ranged Spells! I LOVE WAR!"

"I love it when enemy lines are bombarded with ranged artillery Spells that thunder across the battlefield! I get hard when I see enemies getting knocked into the air then getting pierced by well-placed head-shots! There's nothing like how a blade is used to tear armored targets in half then pierce through the insides whether there is someone inside or not! OH, THE FEELING THAT I GET WHEN I SEE AN ANT SCREAMING WHILE RUNNING ON THE BATTLEFIELD TO BE MOWED DOWN BY STRAY MAGIC BLASTS IS FREAKING EXQUISITE, LIKE WHEN SUBORDINATES BRANDISH THEIR BLADES AND LEAP INTO ENEMY LINES WITHOUT HESITATION! THE SIGHT OF TRAITORS EXECUTED BY THEIR PEERS IS AN IRRESISTIBLE PLEASURE!"

At this point, any trace of sanity had long since left the Fallen Angel as he now was leaning forward with his hand to his face level, a shark-like grin on his lips while his eyes shone brightly with malice, insanity, and twisted glee. It was hard to consider which of them was more monstrous, the Devils or the Fallen Angels at this point. **"ALL I ASK FOR IS WAR! WAR SO GRAND THAT IT MAKES THE UNDERWORLD, GRIGORI, AND THE HEAVENS THEMSELVES TREMBLE! DOESN'T THAT SEEM LIKE FUN TO YOU?! DOESN'T IT FILL YOUR HEARTS WITH JOY LIKE IT DOES MINE?! DO YOU NOT WISH FOR A WAR TO RUSH THROUGH LIKE A TEMPEST, LEAVING NOT EVEN RAVENS TO SCAVENGE THE SCRAPS OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH?!"**

... Does the expression 'Some men just want to watch the world burn' need to be applied here?

That thought crossed everyone's mind as they stared in open-mouthed shock and horror at what Kokabiel was saying. They knew that he was a warmonger, probably insane as well. But this? This was freaking insane! Just how twisted was this asshole?! What kind of Drugs was god on when he created this one?! There was no way that this thing could have even been considered an angel at any point, it was just too ludicrous!

Soon, Kokabiel slowly calmed down, heaving a sigh as he reined in his excitement. He got a little carried away there, but nonetheless none of what he said was wrong. He truly loved war, and now after all these centuries, it was finally time for them to get started again. However... "Thanks to those idiotic pacifists that rule our factions, a new war isn't going to suffice for me anymore. No, not after all this fucking time..." he explained, before throwing his arm to the side as he gave a similar grin to the one he had on before. "WE NEED A MASSIVE WAR! A WAR BEYOND ANYTHING HUMANITY'S HISTORY HAS EVER KNOWN! ONE THAT WILL BE REMEMBERED AS THE GREATEST AND MOST TERRIBLE WAR TO EVER BE RECORDED IN HISTORY, AND THAT WILL HAPPEN IF I FOLLOW HIS ORDERS! YES! THAT IS IT! THAT'S WHAT DRIVES ME! THAT'S IT, YES! YES-YES-YES!"

"How Insane..." Sona muttered, quivering as she sweated waterfalls. This guy wasn't just powerful, but extremely dangerous. This guy couldn't be allowed to live at this rate. He NEEDED to be stopped like right the hell now.

None of the others disagreed with her there.

Franky scoffed in disgust. "This is one of the most disgusting Fallen I've SUPER seen in a long SUPER time." he remarked, not even using some robot talk due to how furious he was.

Ignoring them, Kokabiel looked to the ground below, sensing that it was time. "In any case, the ritual hasn't finished yet. Your boy toy heir still has a job to do, so you will have to wait until he is done. But until then..." he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. "How about you play with some pets I've tamed over the centuries?"

At that moment, the entire courtyard exploded in a shower of dirt, covering their vision and not letting them see Castiel's pain anymore. That might have been a blessing considering how wild the girls had looked like they were about to go. Though, when the ground cleared up, they couldn't focus on that anyways...

Not with the literal ARMY surrounding them.

There were over 7 Centipede like monstrosities that rivaled the size of single decker buses, accompanied by 1 Cerberus, 100 Fallen Angels (60 on the ground the rest taking flight) with dual Light Spears in their hands, as well as over 30 stray-exorcists using not light swords, but other sword-based weapons that looked strangely enough like the Z Saber that Irina possessed.

Franky didn't like that, not one bit.

If they had this technology too, then that would mean...

Oh Rin would be having a FIT when she finds out about this. Those 'hero' fuckers actually did this shit!

"Now, let's start th-"

 _"GIVE ME BACK MY CAS-KUN!"_ A pink haired girl shouted, her eyes fixed at where Castiel should be and the book in her hand shining more and more.

Suddenly, the book itself disappeared as an strange energy covered everyone there, a unique and mad power covering all as she shouted.

" **BALANCE BREAKER!** "

And thus the madness started.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I am just here to tell everyone that I am NOT stopping this story or anything of the sort. I am just taking longer because I am also writing Barbatus King and, more importantly, I am preparing a 'special' release soon that will reveal a LOT of things that most still might not be able to see just yet.**

 **But, this is a very important turning point in the story and I hope everyone will at least read to the end before ignoring it.**

 **And, to those who might be curious, Kokabiel is NOT whole. I will only say that, in case someone hasn't realized it yet, to help you all try and see what will be done.**

 **Thanks for reading it, peace.**


	72. Chapter 66

3° Person P.O.V.

To say that everyone was scared of what they were seeing would be an underestimation.

A giant ball of grey energy appeared above Yuno's head. It looked strangely like a cocoon but no one wanted to try and approach. The reason? The fact that there was a strange energy being released from it, even Kokabiel was instinctively afraid of it due to him recognizing the origin of that power.

Oh, he recognized it well. What he could not understand is what sort of madness made his father decide that create gears with such… entity inside as being a good idea.

But, he also could not bother to act, first because he knew that she was still too weak to actually use its power in its entirety and the amount she was using was more than within his troops capacity to deal with.

Well, at least he wanted to believe it so.

The cocoon was being undone slowly and from the inside, a gigantic figure of Yuno herself surged. But it was different than the normal Yuno as she was wearing a bridal dress covered with spikes in multiple areas, even a bouquet of roses that looked dangarously like man-eating flowers while being over 20 meters tall. It was a strange figure that combined a loveliness and predator feeling to it.

" _ **Imperatrix Verum Est, Finalis Consilium!**_ _(the empress of the truth, final decision)"_

As Yuno said that the giant version of herself scoped her up and put her on the top or its head, the veil on the head changed appearance and form as she was put on that location and sitting down on a throne made of thorns covering her body.

Yuno's glare was on an all-time high as she started walking toward Kokabiel, one of his fallen angels' subordinates tried to put himself in front of the way and to shot her as she was a clear target while sitting down on her throne.

Unfortunately for this foolish fallen angel, he did not comprehend the skill that this balance breaker gave to her.

It was not that her balance breaker was the giant that was formed but the substance itself.

As the light spear approached her a wall of spiked appeared directly in front of her protecting her. Not only that but the 'bouquet' was releasing petals that, upon touching the fallen that was foolish enough to disrespect the 'EMPRESS' was simply eliminated as the petals that touched him were turned into acid faster than he could react.

This was the ability of her Balance Breaker, the total control of what it was. She could change its form, size, and even attributes all as long as she could spend enough energy to do it. The form she was using right now was no more than simply what she imagined as this gear was heavily influenced by her imagination.

Looking at this Kokabiel was impressed. And, as he did not have much to do now, he decided that he might as well go and 'stretch his wings for a bit'. Thus he stood up from his throne and said.

"Leave this one to me, you can go and take care of the others." As his subordinates were confused he said with a snarl. "Are you waiting for ME to murder you or will you obey my orders?"

And with THAT little tidbit, all the fallen outright ignored Yuno so as to head directly to the others. To be fair Yuno also ignored them, she had only one thing on her mind right now, to save Castiel and, if she killed that ugly crow there he will be saved, thus she only had eyes for him.

Kokabiel flew directly towards her, an excited smile by imagining if she would manage to bring out more of THAT entity's power, but as soon as he was close enough to her he realized something weird.

The temperature was rising.

As he noticed that he saw a woman flying absurdly fast toward him by launching flames from her feet, she also domed an armor made out of silver flames and a sword made out of flames as well.

His excitement raised when he saw this. Maybe he would FINALLY face some form of challenge on this mission, finally something to break away from this monotony.

He created a light spear on his left hand as he defended against the woman's attack. He was surprised when after the impact said woman only flew back around 3 or 4 meters and show no sign of serious wounds. As he was planning on attacking her so as to test her more he received an attack from the side in the form of a spiked whip that managed to launch him to the ground.

As he dropped to the ground his smile widened even further. Yes, this is what he wanted. To face someone that could fight back, to not simply stay in the same place just waiting to fade away with time.

When he reached the ground he rolled on the ground and instantly moved to the side as he felt someone approaching him fast. It was the same girl with the flame armor that could fly even faster than him. As soon as he moved to the side he saw the area where said girl impacted the ground was exactly the place he was less than a second ago, and now it was a pool of magma since she melted the ground on impact.

Kokabiel created a light spear and was about to launch it when he felt a punch on his lower back, throwing him more than 10 meters away without him be capable of controlling himself.

Bazet, still with her arm extended, looked at the man with a calmness that was completely unnatural. The only thought in her head was completing this mission, and her mission now was killing this fallen angel.

"Ilyaelia, Yuno, let's go!" She said rushing towards him with the two younger girls.

Kokabiel could not help but frown for a while before smiling again. He realized that all those centuries doing nothing dulled him, made him many times weaker than in his prime or even than right after his wound. But this is exactly what he needed, enemies strong enough to push him while not strong enough to actually be a threat.

He would use them to sharpen himself again, and as thanks, he would kill those three girls in an honorable way fitting of warriors. Then again her corpses could be used afterward for other things, maybe give them to Iscariots for experimentation in exchange of some of those wonderful specimens that they were recently producing.

Stopping this train of thought he evaded another one of Bazet punches while trying to fly away from her, but being incapable of doing it thanks to Yuno turning on of the arms of her balance breaker into a big net that covered him and the others so as to lock them on the ground.

Even then Kokabiel smiled, he would like this. Oh, yes he would.

* * *

"The sure are going SUPER serious over there." Franky said as he started fumbling with a pocket on his clothes until he found what he was looking for. "I guess it is time for me to also go SUUPPERR serious over here."

And with that, he activated what he had in his hand, an activation controller. There was a voice in there which said: "40 seconds until arrival."

Hearing this he smiled and started shooting so as to get the attention from four of the centipeds. Those beasts were all comparable to low ultimate-class but the was not worried at all.

One of the centipeds tried to tackle him directly, but as soon as it was close enough he took a step forward and gave it a straight punch while saying.

" **Strong Right!** " and seeing the gigantic centiped flying away he could not contain the smirk as he said. "Come and get me!"

The other five centipeds looked at him and did exactly that.

He now was going to have a blast of a fight.

* * *

No one dared stay in the air right now, at least when close to the eye of the storm that was Yuzuru and Kaguya. The two were controlling the entire wind around them to fight against 3 dozens of fallen angels at once. This in itself wasn't that difficult, if it wasn't for seven fallen angels that were low ultimate-class and one mid ultimate-class that were attacking them.

The twins were being accompanied by Emily and Akeno which were helping in alleviating the problems the two fairies were facing. Akeno was harnessing the thunder energy from the air to launch blast after blast of pure thunder waves while Emily decided to go for close combat. And boy was that girl good at flying, even now in the middle of a veritable hurricane it was like there was no difference for her at all between this and flying on a clear blue skies, the secret behind was partially due to the twins helping her but the most part was how talented she truly was at flying and how she had trained before in flying in the middle of a storm (which she once had to learn when Yuno had a fit about her giving Castiel a present on his 14 birthday, facing a hurricane was safer). Emily had forfeited the use of her strings in benefit of using her **Trap of Argalia** which would make them incapable of flying and in this storm anyone that could not fly might as well die.

Their efforts were being very useful for something as well because most fallen did not have the guts to fly right now, thus leaving the others on the ground to deal with most of them. And the fallen on the ground and incapable of flying turn into much less of a threat.

* * *

Irina and Xenovia were being besieged by over twenty stray exorcists using swords similar to the Z Saber. It would be close to impossible before, but now it was relatively possible for the two to deal with this if only thanks to their new armors. The two were evading slash after slash, and it was clear that they were stronger and faster than their opponents, but there was still a problem.

These exorcists were the 'failed' experiments from Iscariots, they all were relatively weak but they also had heightened healing capacity making actually killing or defeating them many times more difficult. They were annoying enemies that were not to be trifled with as, even if weaker, they had strong willpower... or better saying they did not have any form of fear of death.

Xenovia already had a few cuts all over her armor and she was doing what she could to deal with this guys, but she was having serious problems in keeping up with more than ten of them attacking her from all sides.

Irina was much the same, but she would not falter here as she understood that behind her was Issei that was also fighting with his life on the line and if she were to fail here he would do something stupid again. And she would NOT let this happen, she would be the one protecting his back.

* * *

Issei was fighting bravely right now side by side Tsubaki. They were trying to keep the fallen in the ground as far away from Rias and Sona as possible, but the sheer amount of them was truly difficult to deal with.

He was using all tricks he had learned while also using his BOOST and TRANSFER to both Rias and Sona so as to rise their firepower, what they had to do now is to lower the number of enemies they were facing.

Thankfully the four were also receiving help from the side in the form of Kuroko who was teleporting all over the place and stabbing many different fallen angels. Because of that they never were truly overwhelmed with the sheer numbers.

PIERCE

While distracted due to looking all around Issei was pierced on the side... or so it should have been.

Despite the lance of light hitting him squarely on the belly, it did no more than tickle him. He gave the surprised fallen that did that a **Little Boy** right in the middle of his face followed to one of the young man new moves.

" **Crimson Dragon's Claw**!"

He then proceeded to give this fallen a taste of his flame enclosed foot.

Seeing this fallen flying away gave Issei some degree of satisfaction, but it was shortlived as he had more fallen angels flying towards him.

As the fight continued he started communicating with Ddraig so as to understand what was going on.

"Draig, why the hell did that attack did nothing to me?" Issei said.

Draig gave a scoff and said.

"Obviously. It is actually quite simple, you now carry some of my flesh in you and how could these weaklings ever hope to damage it? Right now your body is resilient enough to not be wounded by anything bellow mid high-class and that is not saying nothing about how your regenerative speed also raised much further than before." He then talked in a way that it was obvious that he was smiling in a mocking fashion. "How could my flesh and blood be so simple as just raising your physical strength a bit? If you train hard enough you will even be impervious to anything bellow low ultimate-class."

Issei could only blink while processing this information, this was something that he could use. And use it VERY well.

He then turned to Rias and said.

"Buchou, permission to promotion?"

She, while launching another PoD attack that managed to incinerate one of the fallen to the point that there was nothing left, said.

"Permission granted. Go and fight to your hearts content my cute piece."

Nodding his head he said "Promotion KNIGHT!" And used his speed to slam into as many enemies as he could while releasing flames from all over his body.

This was going to be a LONG fight, and he was going to take full advantage of that to get stronger, this is what his new draconic instincts keep telling him.

* * *

In another part of the field, the Cerberus was having some severe difficulties, the reason being that weird dressed girl with a skull mask.

She was weaker than him by many, many levels but he could feel that he was going to lose if things continued this way. The reason being that he could do NOTHING at her, he could not even touch the tips of her clothes while she was running all around him piercing him with so many daggers that it was merely a question of time before he died of either blood loss or poisoning as each and every dagger was coated with the girl's poison.

And the most frustrating part for the giant three-headed dog is that it was clear that she was getting faster and faster with time almost like she was practicing with him instead of seeing this as a fight. To be fair he was absolutely right, Serenity was using this situation so as to get stronger because she could not stay the same as before

She had felt content just by being beside her master, she felt that while the fusion happened things would work out anyway in the end as with time she would be strong enough to protect him from everything. But, when she failed in killing Kokabiel and Castiel paid the price with his own arm she realized that she had to speed up the fusion and assimilation process and from what she could understand the best way was to battle so as to extract and assimilate more and more, and being presented such a nice, slow and hard to kill target was exactly what she needed.

'Wait for me Master, as soon as I am strong enough I will go and save you.' Was the thought on her mind as she assimilated more and more of the heroic spirit's power.

* * *

On a building not far from there, a duo of humans were talking.

"I still can't believe you actually roped me on this." The first one said. "If it wasn't a request from my lord I would never agree to this, killing a young girl just like that is terrible."

"Oh get out of your high horse, this is just job, a job you know." The second one said. "We are getting some necessary info from those old-satan faction idiots in the devil's council in exchange for killing a girl that is an enemy from the start so what is the problem?"

"But even then Robin Hood, we should only kill worthy foes and those who threaten our lord." The first one said while releasing his two spears.

"Oh just shut up already Diarmuid. We are just following orders here. We enter, kill that Gremory girl during the time frame we have, get out, and then go straight at Kokabiel's base and steal it clean from all valuables." Robin Hood, a man with around 20ish years old with grey-green eyes and messy spiky orange hair that partially covers his right eye, his attire consisting of lincoln green clothing and a dark green cloak, along with bandages on his left arm, and brown boots, said to his partner on this mission, partner that is a remarkably handsome man with quirky long hair combed backward in a rough fashion that has a strand hanging down his face, he also wears a dark teal spandex-like clothing with many small runes engraved to raise his defense. The two were reincarnated heroes that worked under the same spear-user boss doing what was requested from them without questioning much.

Diarmuid looked at Robin Hood intensely for some time before sighing and saying.

"For the glory of the HERO FACTION!"

Robin Hood managed to just barely restrain the desire to hit his partner with a poisoned arrow, he was just so unbearable to him. Gulping down he said.

"For the hero faction, and our rich leader that pays well, Cao Cao."

"Sorry, but I cannot allow that." A third voice appeared in front of the pair that approached the school.

The new entry was using a masculine version of the exorcist uniform composed of a long black shirt, Capri-like pants, and heavy-duty boots. He had spiky white hair and a pair of ash-gray eyes, that, at the moment, were extremely serious.

"Oh, and who is going to stop us?" Robin said with a small smirk of confidence.

"It will be the two of us." A new voice said appearing not far from them. This one is a handsome young man with short blond hair, blue eyes (bluish gray eyes in the anime) and a mole underneath his left eye. He had a demonic sword in hand, one that he made based on the knowledge he obtained from the Tower about demonic swords and their constitution. He had discovered that if he knew more of the sword he intended to create than just 'I want it to launch fire' the sword would be much stronger.

And thus another fight started outside the barrier, a battle between two reincarnated heroes against Kiba and Allen.

* * *

Not far from everything else, beyond the battles happening on Kuoh, a single, lone figure shrouded by the moonlit night watched the battle from afar, concealing himself from both magic and visual detection. The figure had arrived a while ago, about when those people began forcing their way into the school.

His job was to stop Kokabiel, as stated by his boss, however, all that was happening promised something interesting, something that may prove fun to fight against. Maybe when that Fallen whose wings were nothing but crows compared to the everlasting darkness of his boss's accomplished his task, he'd make a move. For now, though, he just contented himself with the idea of keeping watch.

Just then, a magic circle appeared beside his ear, though considering the armor he was wearing it would be impossible to see the slight change of angles his yes did when it appeared. "What is it?"

"Are you sure it wise? Not intervening, I mean? If Azazel's spawn gets injured and you didn't help, I'm pretty sure he'd go ballistic on you, even if his daughter hates him." A familiar voice tote figure questioned

"Azazel knows how I'm like, if I see something interesting then I will want to see what it is first. Besides, those people look like they can handle themselves... the people of the tower that is." the figure commented before he released a sigh of disappointment. "It appears my rival is weaker than me right now by way too much to even be entertaining. Pathetic. While he seems to have unlocked balance breaker, he had to give something up to speed the process along. Due to his likely boring-as-hell background, probably." But he then sounded a bit more excited when he said. "At least he now has the vibe of someone looking to get stronger. With luck, he will be capable of being a worthy foe in the future."

The figure chuckled to himself when he remembered how his adoptive father got his ass beat by his daughter when meeting her. He didn't know their circumstances, neither did he care. He could figure them out easily himself, anyways. That spawn of Azazel knows that he is affiliated with her father, so if he did show up as soon as Azazel wanted then she would likely not accept his help. Not like he cared, but still it would be too much a pain to deal with her (especially since he can't go fight her, she is sort of but not quite his step-sister after all, and he liked his non-devil family after all) so he'll only show up when the situation warrants it. For now, it seemed like they were holding their own, but for how long will that be?

A feminine giggle came from the magic circle.

"Yeah well, not everyone's a battle maniac like you, Vali."

Vali, the white Dragon Emperor, rolled his eyes behind his Scale Mail Balance Breaker at his lover's remark.

"Neither are there many as battle junky as you, Karasuba."

She laughed a bit more and said

"Just for you, I am just this battle crazy for you."

"And anyone that is strong enough." Vali countered.

"Fair enough, but just as a heads-up if I don't get to fight tonight there won't be any 'bed-fighting' for a while," Karasuba said, and if she or anyone else could see Vali's face they would be shocked to see him releasing cold-sweat. Staying too long without that bubbly and wonderful ass was NOT on his priority list.

But, he would not allow himself to show it. He knows that Karasuba likes to tease him and if she ever knows that she could 'tame' him with this he would be screwed instead of screwing.

"Do what you want." Was his answer as he eliminated the magic circle just hearing a bit of a laughter from his lover.

Things looked to be heating up, but unless things were truly dire then he wouldn't interfere, he had his pride after all and if he said all that to his lover he would follow through with it. Besides, even if his rival was a weakling, there was someone down there that could potentially rival him if his conjectures about him were correct.

Now all he needed to do is see how it goes and hope that what he deduced from everything he knew was correct, because if it was so, he knew that he would be getting another rival soon enough.


	73. Chapter 67

3° person P.O.V.

CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

In the middle of the streets in Kuoh, one intense clash was happening between four young men.

Diarmuid, a young man that came from a long lineage of warriors and was the reincarnation of Diarmuid Ua'Dubaine was using his two spears to face Rias Gremory's knight, Yuuto Kiba.

The two traded blows left and right, trying to break through each other's defenses though it wasn't going as they'd hoped. More specifically on Diarmuid's side as he tried relentlessly to destroy Kiba's swords with well place Spear swings, thrusts and smacks. The man grimaced after dodging one swing towards his right shoulder, before he attempted one such smack towards Kiba's head, but the Knight reacted by angling his sword in a diagonal angle by the assaulted side and then deflecting it. When the golden Spear came at him to stop him from getting close, Kiba analyzed its motions... before sliding right by it.

Kiba then stepped forwards, right through Diarmuid's guard to his shock, a slight smirk on his lips. He then gripped his sword and performed a rising whirlwind slash, which basically consisted of him jumping upwards, spinning about into a barrage of horizontal slashes before bringing his sword down on the man's head. The enemy warrior barely stopped it in time by raising his Spears, the two weapons releasing a shockwave along with a mighty CLANG sound.

This didn't deter the knight however as he used the Spears as a springboard, stomping on them with both feet to flip backwards and land on his own two feet. He then used his Sacred Gear once more to create multiple swords in his opposite hand, simple Rapier-like swords (not to be confused with the black keys, but he did take inspiration from their design). According to what he had learned, they were best suited for thrusting attacks, something that he would make use of in the next few seconds.

In that moment, Kiba chucked the swords towards the enemy like they were throwing knives, to which Diarmuid swiftly deflected them with well-timed Spear thrusts. This time though, he used the last thrust as a means of following up by stabbing the rear tip into the ground and propelling himself above a slash to his waist that followed.

As one could tell, their clash held quite the intensity and was completely focused on technique, it was like the two were competing not on who was stronger but in who is the best fighter.

Despite his earlier actions, Kiba couldn't help but feel the pressure of a real battle once more. Much like back when he fought those Fallen Angels, the stakes here were as real as they could come. This foe was a mighty one indeed, as well as a Skilled Spear user from what he could tell from the way he showed his Spear-handling. Probably well versed in the art of combat, way more so than Kiba himself.

The way that Diarmuid used his long red spear so as to attack Kiba with a mix of sweep and horizontal movements, made it so that Kiba wouldn't have that many chances to create any extra swords like what he just did before, as they would be hasty projects and would be no match to Gae Builde's ability to destroy magic. He also used his short golden spear so as to pierce and make sure that Kiba could not approach him freely while trying his very best to damage him with it. According to what he knew from myths, that spear had a curse that makes wounds not heal. Unfortunately for this guy however, those spears were not yet on the same level as his ancestor due to him not yet being on the same level as well, thus the battle was still quite balanced as Kiba proved himself an excellent warrior, especially after his training on these last few weeks and the fight the night prior.

As the two fought at speeds that were more and more transcending the limits to what most could even see, the other two were having a much more complex battle.

Allen swung about the battlefield, using the Tendrils from his Sacred Gear Crown Clown in ways that would make Spider Man green with envy. He used these movements, combined with excellent parkour abilities to dodge the arrows that were fired at him from the Robin Hood descendant, though there was one problem. Every time he dodged an arrow, Allen had to dodge trees that grew from said arrows. That, combined with how fast this guy was, made him a rather formidable and annoying foe to fight. He would respond by launching his own ranged attacks with his extra Tendrils, just to keep the reincarnated hero off his toes.

At least Allen was not limited to JUST is sacred gear and he, in fact, possessed many black keys on hand just in case he needed for a troublesome fight (or to stop debt collectors, his worse arch-enemy). In the end, it was turning out to be a 'game' of hide-and-seek between the two combatants with both trying their best to stay hidden while hitting their enemy in a soon to be 'mini-forest'.

And thus these fights remained on a stalemate.

* * *

On the school skies, an intense battle was also happening.

Floating in the middle of a large hurricane, both Yuzuru and Kaguya manipulated the winds to create wind blades, bombarding the low-ultimate Class Fallen Angels from multiple angles. To the onlookers, they would have looked like vengeful storm gods whom were going to reduce everything in the air to smoldering piles of ashes, with the rage dancing through their eyes. The aim of this was to keep them on their toes while slowly picking them off one by one. Yuzuru focused primarily on the Wind Blades while Kaguya would gather energy and launch large-scale storm blasts at their foes. Unfortunately for them, things weren't going as well as they had hoped in their little aerial struggle. They may be working together well in tandem, but that was nothing compared to the sheer numbers of their enemy and each one individually being stronger than them.

At least they had help from Akeno and her control (limited as it may be) of the thunder laws and thus the storm they were raising grew in strength and lethality with the passage of time. Akeno and them kept together as well, providing the storm's 'Core' with power and using it as a means to keep the other Fallen from getting too close. Though with the concessional Barrage of Light Spears they all had to focus on keeping the core going lest they lose the Storm completely.

Fallen Angel wings and feathers danced across the twins and Akeno's respective visions while the trio had each floated back to back. They kept the storm going to strike at their foes like Zeus would when smiting a mortal with his lightning bolts. Their foes flew like blurs around them, making it difficult to pinpoint their exact positions. Good thing then that the three girls were using not just their eyes but their other senses too, in order to keep track of them and strike with fierce wind and lightning attacks.

Their main problem was not the bulk of enemies since dealing with them was just a matter of time and opportunity as the power of nature itself was more and more on their control, their main difficulty was in the form of the mid ultimate-class that was now battling Emily. If she was to lose or allow for him to 'slip away' then it was entirely possible for the three girls (Akeno, Yuzuru, and Kaguya) to lose all the momentum they were accumulating to try and defend against him, and if this happened then it was highly possible for everyone there to die.

Emily was facing him in a high-speed battle above the storm's core. She was using her **Trap of Argalia** for close combat while she tried to hit her enemy with ranged strikes in the form of her light spears, as those were her best options right now. She did want to use her newly made Diamond Splash but in this storm, it was as useless as it got. If anything it might prove to be counter-productive since she might end up hitting her own allies by accident.

And thus she crossed paths with the mid ultimate-class fallen angel Lucas, the same one that managed to steal the Excalibur Rapidly from right in front of her eyes.

This time, however, things were far from the same. The reason? Well, the fact that he could not run away was one, that she got to practice a bit with her magic core and thus gain more control over her power was another, but the most important was the fact that Lucas could not fly properly thanks to the punch from Okuyasu the previous night. He tried everything he could but the damage done by that fist was not something so easy to deal with and he still felt pain whenever he moved his lower wings, thus he could not move nearly as well as he normally could.

Thus their fight was actually tending to Emily's favor as, despite her lack of burst power, she had a much greater reserve of magic energy and she could fly very well even under this storm, thus she had the mobility advantage.

And the battle on the skies continued.

* * *

In the floor, close to the gym area, a battle also was happening.

Okuyasu was fighting together with Eevee so as to protect Miku from the high ultimate-class fallen angel commander Maciel. It was not an easy fight at all since Okuyasu was depending heavily on Miku's reinforcement to strengthen his power and Eevee in his Psychic form so as to hinder Maciel's movements with telekinesis and induce strong headaches with its mind powers.

Even then Okuyasu was not having an easy fight at all, he could feel that his opponent was more focused on getting to Miku before she could complete her new magic, which was giving out a very bad premonition to him and as a veteran in combat, and the only subordinate from Kokabiel that survived the great war instead of born later, he knew what was the time to listen to his instincts. And those instincts were screaming at Maciel to NOT let her complete this magic or it just might be the end for all his subordinates and him.

Unfortunately, he could not pass through Okuyasu at all. He tried to move around him many times, but every single time Okuyasu would only swipe his hand and either him would teleport to right in front of Maciel or Maciel would be teleported to right in front of a well-placed kick or punch.

The time was running out and Maciel could only see the magic Miku was creating getting stronger and more complete by the second. Seeing this he decided to launch light spears as fast as possible towards Miku and hope that at least one would hit her.

Okuyasu managed to destroy most of them and Eevee managed to stop a few others, but just one still passed through the two.

"MMIIIKUUUU!" Okuyasu yelled.

"EESSSPPEEEOOOOONNNNNNN!" Eevee (in Espeon form) barked.

But it was too late. The two had no time to stop the light spear and Miku could not stop the song now that she was at this point even if she wanted to.

VVVRRRRROOOOOMMMM

VVVRRRRROOOOOMMMM

CRASH

And a... motorcycle crushed the light spear in passing while a Tank was right behind it.

"It was SUPER delayed, I need to adjust it later on." A guy said not far from them as he mounted in the moto and started a transformation using it and the tank. "Now it is time for FRANKY SHOGUN!"

And a mecha robot of over 10 meters tall appeared on the field.

"A robot! Coooooollll!" Okuyasu yelled, followed by similars yells and cheers from all other males independent if they were on the allied or the enemy side in the field as all guys LOVE robots. The girls... well they did not seem nearly as excited.

After a few seconds of pure mechanical GLORY, the battle continued. But this time things were VERY different, the reason being that Miku completed her song and its effects appeared on the field.

" **Ballad for the weak little child**!" Was what she shouted as her magic took effect. And the effect was quite obvious since it systematically lowered everyone's powers to one full level lower, so those who were at mid high-class all turned into mid mid-class. This was Miku's strongest debuff magic, and the defects are that it took to long to cast, the duration was just 8 or so seconds, and that those who were above her by more than one class were immune to its effects.

However, 8 seconds is plenty of time to make a LOT of damage, exemplified by how Rias and Sona showed WHY the two were the leaders of their peerages by launching a combined magic they made during the day.

" **Great Wave of Destruction**!" They said in unison as the water Sona used was imbued with Rias PoD to launch a big wave that destroyed a LOT of the fallen angels weakened by Miku. The result was that the number of enemies surrounding them took a sharp fall.

And this was NOT the only development.

Issei took advantage of that to use a new move as well, this one from a character in an anime that he loved to see because of the oppai and great action sequences.

" **Crimson Dragon Roar**!" And with that a big blast of fire was launched covering 6 of the fallen, turning them into charcoal. If it was before he fused part of his body with Draig he would feel remorse or hesitation to do this, but he was now part-dragon and 'a dragon doesn't care about the lives of the sheep'.

And even in the sky, the battle took a turn for the better, thanks to their power weakening those low ultimate-class fallen angels were successfully stopped in place by Yuzuru, giving Kaguya and Akeno ample opportunity to deliver some well-deserved punishment to those 'naughty' fallen angels.

The battle was now much more balanced, and Emily even managed to wound Lucas by piercing him on the shoulder and the side of the torso with light spears.

"Shit." Maciel said looking at all the problems around, turning his back to Okuyasu as he prepared to take flight.

"Not so fast, asshole!" Okuyasu said as he pulled Maciel close to him and delivered a punch with everything he had right into Maciel's back.

CRACK

A bad sound resonated from the fallen angel's back as he coughed out blood. The effects of Miku's magic disappearing but the damage was done. The number of the fallen side dropped to almost half in a matter of seconds giving not only a numerical but also a emotional damage to all the surviving Kokabiel's soldiers.

They had trained together, lived together, done everything as if they were one only entity to the point that they saw each other as brothers. But now here they are, being slaughtered by some snotty kids as their leader was too busy playing around with others.

If they could they'd retreat then and there, they themselves had nothing to gain from this fight as the only one that would get anything is their lord that would receive a replacement from what he had long lost on another stupid battle.

Maciel could only smile in self-pity inside his mind. This is their destiny, the path that those who do not reach super-class fall into, they turn into nothing more than pieces to the 'big-guns' and leaders.

But.

Even if that is so.

They would try their very best to survive this and go back to their families, as the soldiers of Kokabiel no longer follow him for anything but fear of his revenge.

Truly, what empty paths they had gotten into.

* * *

Back with the seal array holding Castiel in place, Lugh stood before him with her sword drawn, looking up at him with her lone red eye filled with intense concentration. Her grip on her sword tightened at the sight of his screaming self, and in all honesty, she felt glad that he was only silently screaming right now. Otherwise, the others would just fly into an even greater frenzy to get to him and right now that was not allowed.

Not with what her father had told her.

When she questioned him about his motives, she had feared that the man had truly betrayed the tower, everything his mentor stood for. As his adoptive daughter, she feared this more than anyone for it would mean that someday she would either lose her father to some madness, that he no longer was the smiling old man that she loved. Not something she liked to think about. No daughter wanted to see their father's life turn out like that. And the thought of her having to raise her weapons towards those who still accepted her, well this made her feel disgusted with the mere thought.

What he told her though...

"Lugh!"

'Shit, looks like I have no choice...' she thought reluctantly, turning around and gripping her Hrotti at the sight of Sona and Rias standing before her, looks of urgency on their faces. Neither of them looked too good either, as while it seemed they had finished their battles, neither of the two were at full strength. Heck, they had to combine their powers for a large-scale devastating shockwave that destroyed their enemies in one fell swoop, leaving them at half their total power.

"Gremory. Sitri." Lugh greeted curtly, nodding at them. "It seems you two managed to get further than what Kokabiel anticipated from you. You have my praise."

Rias narrowed her eyes at the silver-haired woman, noticing her stance. "What are you doing, Lugh? Why aren't you getting Castiel out of there?" she asked her hotly, her power radiating around her. "Out of my way, I'll destroy this seal myself."

"That I cannot allow, Gremory."

SLASH!

"Rias!"

Sona called out the name of her friend as she barely jumped to the side in time to avoid a slash from the silver-haired thief. Said thief turned around and aimed a cold, robotic gaze towards them while pointing her sword at them. "Apologies, but this seal must be completed no matter what. Nothing shall get close to it, not on my watch."

"You're betraying us?! What about Castiel?! He trusted you!" Sona roared in fury.

Lugh remained silent at that question as she just charged forth to begin her own battle.


	74. Chapter 68

3° Person P.O.V.

The fact that Lugh was fighting for the other side was a surprise. But it was not time to think about that, everyone could see it very clearly as the blood of Castiel was being drained out of his body by those chains and some weird energy was replacing it as it started to fly bit by bit towards those six Excalibur Fragments that by now looked more like metal fragments as most of the materials were disintegrated due to the sheer energy running through them right now.

The swords were destroyed and the holy ore that was part of the original Excalibur appeared before everyone's eyes. Those metal pieces were being washed by the energy that was passing through Castiel and melting bit by bit as they started to unite. The process was slow as the blood on his veins was used as the channel for the energy underground to pass through, being replaced little by little by the pure energy that was then sucked out of his body and put into the sword. Due to this not only Castiel's blood but also his bones and organs was being washed by so much energy that if it wasn't by the chains containing it he would have exploded already, not that his body was on any good condition since he was being bottled out from more energy than he ever was supposed to wield, more energy that his seal would EVER allow.

An old man inside the magic ritual circle was looking at everything as he modified the magic circle as time passed, the ritual advancing as expected and soon enough he would complete his truest desire. No matter what happens before or after he would complete his objective.

He would get his REVENGE.

* * *

To say that things were still quite complex was, to say the least.

Even if the numbers they now faced were less the simple fact is that the energy from everyone was started to dwindle away, they are different than the fallen as they do not have unlimited magic energy.

A fact that was pressuring everyone there, with only a feel being alright. One being Franky that was using his giant robot to fight some giant centipeds in, what many would call, a reenaction of Power Rangers.

The fact that Franky was using light beans was enough to make sure that most males could only look at him gapping on just how cool this was.

Meanwhile, Emily was having quite the battle. Thanks to the fact that now the other ultimate-class fallen had been weakened she could fully focus on her enemy, knowing that it would be all right for her and that those others ultimate-class would not reach her friends.

This was not all that changed as this happened. Now, thanks to not having so much pressure on Emily the others could focus more on restraining and defeat/kill the low ultimate-class fallen angels, which by now with all the wounds they had would not take long at all as the combination of wind and thunder after enough time to catch momentum was just too strong.

This also meant that the twins shrank the area of effect of the storm they were creating so as to focuss even more of its power on those surviving low ultimate-class fallen, leaving Emily to fight as she pleased since there no longer would there be those high winds to stop her from using her main attack methods.

And use she did.

As the fight between her and Lucas got heated up wounds were accumulating on both their bodies. The two were being covered in blood and there seemed that it would not end up any time soon. She used her Diamon Splash at him while he simply used light spears back at her, the light spears actually winning on sheer piercing power but she could evade them well enough while Lucas did not have the same lucky since the 'diamonds' were simply too numerous to actually be evaded.

Thankfully the power each of these 'diamonds' had was not strong enough to puncture his body, but with these amounts, he was getting full of purple and black spots as the concussions raised more and more in number.

"This is it, fuck it all, I will NOT be used as a sand-bag for the daughter of Azazel-sama's whore." Lucas said, earning a twitching eyebrow from Emily.

If there is ONE thing she did not allow is for others to speak badly of her mother.

Lucas came in fast, he wanted to 'screw this bitch' as he so eloquently would say, and to do that he took advantage of the fact that the wind now was much weaker and thus much simpler for him to go to close combat, his specialty.

He accelerated with all his strength, a smirk on his face as he saw her showing surprise on her face and a bit of desperation.

'I won' This is what Lucas thought.

However, reality sometimes is not that simple.

"Huh?" Was what Lucas said, and those were his last words as he was screwed by over ten light spears.

Emily's face went from a look of surprise to one of ridicule, she honestly never thought that her enemy would be stupid enough to not even look carefully at her attacks.

It was the same strategy that she liked to use, she created light threads as thin and transparent as possible while also making sure to connect it to just a few of her spears so as to not warn her enemy. And the plan succeeded in a spectacular fashion, especially since her enemy never looked at the spears she launched that intensely and even flew ahead, turning his back to that attack. Her acting was also an important part, acting like she was afraid and fearful of him made him all the more unconcerned to his back.

PIERCE

She finished him by piercing him through the head with her Trap of Argalia, not because there was a need to her use this but just to make sure that he would not have a complete corpse. A small revenge for him talking bad of her mother.

* * *

In another area, Okuyasu was fighting with all he had and a bit more against the high ultimate-class fallen angel Maciel. The fighting was getting extremely in favor of Maciel, shown by how Okuyasu was sweating profusely and his legs started to shake a bit. If it wasn't for Eevee changing forms to his fairy-type Sylveon (which is specialized in healing and support) he would have fallen already.

He could not find the right time to use his sacred gear to scrap his enemy from reality due to Maciel being cautious of it, focusing most of his attention to Okuyasu's right hand.

The things were not going well at all.

SLASH

Suddenly, a spear tried to slash Maciel's back.

He managed to evade only thanks to his well-honed instincts, but some of his hair was cut right where his neck was less than a second ago. Goosebumps run all over his back as he saw the strands of his hair falling in front of his face.

BANG

He then was kicked on the side by the same person, a kick that made him feel like he was a soccer ball in a game. Not a good feeling.

As he flew over 7 meters he tried his best to stop in place, and as soon as he stopped.

STAB

STAB STAB

STAB STAB STAB STAB

He was pierced by 5 black keys, one for each knee, one on the right shoulder and two on his wings. As he felt the pain of the black keys burning his very soul, especially the pain surging through his wings, he saw the two newcomers that were glaring at him.

Kuroko was puffing a bit, uncomfortable as she felt her sacred gear started to react to the energies all around her and the spirit inside was refusing to show weakness. The gear was also reacting to her emotions, emotions that were focussed in go to help her Onii-sama, get revenge for what happened, and kill any and all involved on what happened to her precious person.

Tsubaki was quite like that too. She has always been raised to be perfect, she had since birth been raised to be the ideal daughter and member of the Shinra Clan, one of the great human Clans from Japan, but above all else, she has always been taught to not show her emotions and thoughts as much as possible. She running away and accepting Sona's invitation to be part of her peerage was like a dream come true and this city of Kuoh was the home she never had in her birthplace, she even found a guy she liked and she has chosen herself, something that she could never even dare to think about before. And now? Now these fallen angels invaded her home, were using Sona's school the and path to her dream for some strange ritual, and even took away the man she has chosen away from her.

If that is not personal, nothing is.

Her sacred gear also was reacting to her emotions, her desire to do something about it. To turn this situation around it, to return everything they did to her 'little world'.

She took out her spear, a simple naginata that was one of the last few things she 'received' from her old home. She aimed it at Maciel, who after calming down noticed how beneath him the two were. Kuroko was only around mid high-class in power level and Tsubaki was not much better since she was only at high high-class (she had managed to raise from mid high-class to high high-class after the fight from the previous night, fighting to the extreme does help raise the power after all).

"A bunch if weaklings will do no difference, I will get my revenge against that girl that is responsible for killing most of my subordinates."

Kuroko was having none of that stupid bastard talk. She teleported directly to his side and tried to screw him with one of her back keys, but he deflected her without much difficulty as it was not that hard to identify her disappearing and reappearing, especially since there was a time lag between the two. The lag may be very small, barely a twentieth of a second, but it was not impossible for those who trained and were experienced enough to do something with it.

As Maciel deflected Kuroko's black keys he managed to pierce her side slightly, burning all the way through her liver and almost finished piercing her through. Thankfully Okuyasu used his sacred gear to pull her away from there.

She was losing a LOT of blood, and she was losing it fast, but she could not feel any of it as her mind was not quite there.

She was in the middle of a strange place, it looked organic and at the same time not, like she was standing above a living monster that was closer to a rock than a living being.

" **Are you sure you want to form this contract? I will not force you, but know that if you do enter this contract you may not have a chance of having a normal life. You will be part of me, and my ultimate mission will be yours to complete. YOU will have no choice but to help with making sure the world will not end because of those idiots that are trying to use what should not be used.** " A deep voice with no right direction said directly on her mind, the pressure it exuded so great that she felt like her very soul might dissipate if it wasn't for her divine blood that she inherited from her father.

"I don't care about any of that! I just want to go and save Onii-sama, and if you can help me than just do it already! I MUST SAVE ONII-SAMA!" Kuroko yelled to the nothingness of the place she was. She could not tell from where the voice originated but if it could hear her it was fine, and if not she would dig and break everything there until she found whoever is this place's owner and tell it to him.

" **HAHAHAHAHA** , **a good resolve, a truly good resolve! If it is like this you may probably raise yourself to be capable of controlling what power I have left, to control the knowledge and everything that I, YOG SOTHOTH am.** " The voice said as the place she was standing at changed, it became much smoother and some tentacles raised from the ground with one having an eye looking directly at her.

It was a bizarre sight, something that could have driven weaker people mad just by being there, but to Kuroko right now it meant NOTHING. To her, the only thing that mattered was saving her precious Onii-sama.

The eye looked at her intently as a small and thin tendril extended to her direction.

" **I am the one that keeps and is all the secrets and mysteries that there has always been and will be. Even I can't control it all and this damned place here only contains a fragment of my soul, but even this is too much for you to use it all. I am the fragment that relates to space and, even if God removed most of my energy to make another one of this sacred gears, still have plenty of the know-how of the control of space. I will help you learn and use the TRUE power of what space control can do, now go out there and save your 'Onii-sama!'. But remember that you must help prevent the end of existence, as I do want to keep living.** " This last bit was with a bit of a chuckle, Yog Sothoth may be a cosmic entity who did not have a personality but with time and contact with the world, he did develop one such personality.

Kuroko did not bother to care about whatever that tentacle world thingy was saying, as soon as she was back in control of her body she felt her sacred gear changing inside her. It was less than a second that passed on the outside world, but the change in her was clear to see as she stood up after Okuyasu healed her injury.

The space around her vibrated strangely as she raised her hand, a small blue ball of… something was spinning on her hand as she said.

" **Balance Breaker, locus spatium Yog-dominus!** (yog-space room master)"

As she said those words her balance breaker fully activated, the blue ball expanding to cover herself and her enemy with space to spare. She also had a new red and yellow long coat that reached until close to the floor with what looked like small hands or tentacles connected forming it.

Maciel looked at it with renewed caution, he was experienced enough to know that a balance breaker is COMPLETELY different in power and scale to a normal sacred gear.

However, nothing could have readied him for what happened next.

Kuroko launched her black keys like before, but this time the strength she put into them was much greater than before and the aim was all wrong. Maciel thought that she was under a lot of pressure from this activation of her balance breaker, that this was a good chance for him to counterattack her, and so he launched his trident/light spear at her.

" **Shambles** " Was what Kuroko said as an inconceivable thing happened. The light spear thrown at her was replaced by one of the black keys she launched right in the instant the light spear left Maciel's hand. It was so sudden that he got NO time to react and thus had his guts pierced by the black key, the pain was raised further as the previous few wounds from the black keys started to resonate with this one and made his soul be wounded further. The pain was unimaginable.

But this was FAR from enough to Kuroko. She wanted to defeat her enemies, all of them, and rescue her precious Onii-sama from their clutches.

Maciel quickly understood that long-distance attacks would be beyond useless against this young girl, because if anything they would be exactly what he should not use at all. And so he went to a close combat, which wasn't really helping much considering how she could now teleport herself and him as she pleased making her that much harder to effectively fight against.

But, his biggest mistake wasn't the fact that he did not make a 'strategic retreat as he would say (or running with all his strength calling for mommy as others would say), in fact, his greatest mistake was not focusing on the other girl that wanted nothing more than to kill him and finish this fight.

Tsubaki also was on a chaotic state of mind, she wish for strength and to not be so weak as to force the one she decided to be with, one of her few true choices in life, this wish was reacting with her sacred gear. And the reaction was also generating a strong power that eventually… cracked something inside her.

The moment this crack happened everything started to change on the area around them. Where before there was a chaotic space now there was mirrors and ice floating around with all shapes and forms, some small enough to fit on the palm of one's hand and others big enough that even an entire person could see himself without feeling crumpled.

" **Balance Breaker: Speculum Reginae Factione ad Insaniam Convertunt** (mad party of the mirror princess)"

Tsubaki then proceeded to be squashed down by a mirror that descended on top of her head, completely disappearing from the sight of all. But, it was clear that she was not dead or anything as there was no sign of a corpse or anything of the sort and the mirrors in the air still remained as before, floating in mid-air.

Maciel was wary of this, but he had no time to investigate what it meant as he had to constantly evade Kuroko's mad attacks that threatened to cut him up more, something he could not allow or his soul might suffer incurable damage or even die if he was to be pierced some more.

As he evaded those attacks he let his back to get too close to one small mirror that was positioned on the ground, it barely had 25 cm of diameter and it was not really noticeable in Maciel's eyes since he was just that much worried about NOT being pierced by another black key.

STAB

A spear trust was made from said mirror, piercing his right thigh and unbalancing him, which almost meant a new black key piercing his left lung. Maciel managed to use one of his wings to take this attack, but the pain of his wings being pierced by the black key was BEYOND terrible to him and he could feel that he would definitely have a drop in strength even if he was to survive this battle.

"Damn you!" Maciel said as he launched a light spear at the same mirror that the spear came from. As it reached the mirror too fast Kuroko did not have the time to use her balance breaker to redirect the light spear back at him.

BREAK

The mirror that he attacked broke under his spear, and a small smile played on his lips. For him, seeing this mirror that was part of this balance breaker was broken this easily by his attack, it represented that he could break his enemies apart. That he still had a chance at this.

Unfortunately, he was mistaken about the nature of Tsubaki's balance breaker.

PIERCE

The very same light spear that he launched before surged from another one of the mirrors hanging in the air, his attack was launched right back at him with twice the power and from a tricky angle such that it pierced another one of his wings right through.

The pain that was felt by Maciel was simply impossible to imagine, he could only feel as if his soul and mind was a thin distance away from truly breaking apart. Tears feel down from his face as the pain passed his threshold of what he could support. He was ready to run away and give up on everything here, fuck his boss and fuck his enemies too, he wanted to go home, maybe find some girl and settle down, even a human would work out somehow after all both Azazel-sama and Baraquiel-sama did that so why not him too.

But, even this was no longer an option to this fallen angel.

PIERCE

BOOM

A light spear bigger than his own body eliminated him from existence, even his damaged soul was burned to a crisp by the power inside said spear that simply continued flying as if it didn't even notice his existence.

"Being one of my generals and still DARE to shred tears of pain, I am letting you off easy." A haughty voice said as Kokabiel reappeared in front of everyone, a smirk on his face as he sat on his golden throne and looked down at all those still fighting.

Most were either dead or barely standing due to tiredness, there were none who did not sprout some wounds or had their magic reserves at the point of not being capable of standing anymore. The smell of blood in the air, the bool of his own allies and the blood that they managed to get from their enemies, was better than any perfume and wine to Kokabiel. A smell that he wanted to feel forever because it represented what he loved the most in the world.

Meanwhile Bazet was carrying the bleeding forms of Yuno and Ilyaelia, the two young girls were truly hanging from a thread as their bodies were damaged immensely by Kokabiel last attack, Bazet being in a better condition than the two girls due to the defense from her suit and due to her body being absurdly strong and her practicing Touki after training in this world and studying it a bit. It fit her surprisingly well and she mastered it in just a few months of practice, to the point that she helped train Sairaorg Bael on it as well.

Looking at Kokabiel Bazet clenched her fists, if it wasn't for his armor and his flight capacity she had an 85% surety of killing him, but she simply did not have such luxuries in the end.

As he glanced at all his enemies Kokabiel wanted to use his name's power, the only thing he still retained after his descent into a fallen angel, the power that still lingered on his body from the system of heaven, but he knew that it was not yet time because if he DID use it there would have an almost 100% chance of interrupting the ritual, and he could not afford that. He needed to complete the ritual to obtain a fitting replacement to what he lost so long ago during his battle against God.

"You insects are entertaining enough, I allow for you to watch as the ritual finishes and to spectate as I return and suppress my splendor of old, from the time before I fell to this weak form I now have." Kokabiel said haughtily, he then continued. "But, considering how some of you people still refuse to calm down I suppose I can show you all where you stand, your natural position as worms beneath my feet."

As he said that he was about to launch himself at Franky who was still fighting against those centipedes that simply refused to die.

"Kokabiel-sama, the ritual is almost complete now. I will need your help with the final touches." An aged voice said as Valper Galilei, the ex-bishop, and researcher of the Tower, surged from the ritual circle. Rias threw a ball of PoD at him, but Lugh appeared in front of the attack using her ghastly speed and cut the magical attack on half using her sword.

She looked impassively at Rias and the others that were approaching before she raised her **Crocear Mors** and then pushed it down, raising gravity to all involved to the point that the ground itself was compressed over 30 centimeters down. Her power in clear display as she used a jewel that her stepfather gave her with a few drops of the liquid energy that was passing through Castiel right now to energize her enough to maintain her max output for a longer time. She also felt some of the energy that was passing through Castiel going towards her due to the master/servant ritual they went through before, empowering her even further.

Thus no one was able to get to her and the ritual as Kokabiel entered the magic ritual circle, a smug face and regal walk as if he was the king of it all, and in fact, he did think like that.

"So it is time Galilei?" Kokabiel said.

"Yes, not all we need is for you to transfer your own energy so as to align the item to your necessities and the fusion can start." Galilei answered as he bowed to Kokabiel.

And thus the sword fragments came together, a new holy sword was born on the image of the thing Kokabiel needed the most. The thing that he lost so long ago on the fight against God, the part of him that he could never found a worthy replacement and he had to contain himself with a lower quality fake that limited his powers.

He touched the part from his body that was not TRULY from his body, the 'weak' part that he got after excavating the remains of King Arthur, the only human that he admitted to being superior to him even at his apex.

RRRIIIIPPPPPP

He removed said arm with no hesitation, even his own pain at the brutal process was mitigated from the excitement from finally getting his old power's back. No, if he truly fused with this item and become one with it forget about his old powers he would become stronger than ever before.

Using a focused power of his true name's power as the 'morning star of God' he finished the forging process, melting king Arthur's flesh and blood into the item and thus evolving it further.

And as he finished it he placed the 'sword' at where his arm should be and became the owner of **Argetlan** , the arm that was not an arm, a sword that was not a sword, and another form of Excalibur, the sword with the power over the hopes of mankind.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **An admittedly confusing chapter, I will explain a few things if you didn't understand.**

 **First, Kuroko's sacred gear houses a part of the spirit of the evil deity** **YOG SOTHOTH, a deity from Chtulu. It is just a part because just a piece of him was on DXD universe, most of it is divided into many separate universes so it is impossible to put everything in a single spot.**

 **Second, I gave multiple hints throughout the last few chapters that Kokabiel's right arm was not his original one. The armor on his right arm being different, he said how he is incomplete and how he admitted to being far from his apex, and how he needed this ritual for a return to his peak. He wanted an arm that could replace his lost one and that would be perfect for an angel, and Argetlan is perfect as it is made with the light of the world itself.**

 **Those who reach Leader-class are the most powerful, true, but it also means that their flesh and blood is extremely important for them. Losing any means that they will either not have that many anymore or need to slowly heal it back up. That is why Phenex Tears are so valuable, they can restore even those damages quite quickly and much more perfectly than anything else, but Kokabiel would never choose to use a devil's product on himself or even be able to get his hands on some of it as he is a fallen angel.**

 **I hope this helps explain things. The next few chapterswill be a wild ride, but I hope you all enjoy it even if just a bit.**


	75. Chapter 69

3° Person P.O.V.

If there was anything that could describe the current feelings coursing through his blood right now, it would be euphoria as Kokabiel relished in his current accomplishment.

"Yes! Finally, I am complete again! I no longer will remain as an aberration that had to scavenge an arm, I will go back to how I was, to my true power!" Kokabiel yelled and laughed at the same time,throwing both arms into the air and rearing his head to the heavens. One could say that he was delirious in happiness due to finally managing to obtain an arm that would fit in for him. The arm was metallic and was full of runes and gravures to give it a holy and sacred feel to it, almost ethereal to the point that it wouldn't be out of place on an art exposition.

Looking at Kokabiel's reaction to the new arm, it made sense for the others to be confused. Why was such an arm so important that he had gone so far? But, no matter what that was, the fact remained that they could barely lift a muscle due to how absurd the gravity was. Lugh continued to look impassively to everyone even when they looked at her with pleading or angry eyes. She distanced herself from all of this, she would simply follow through with her decision, nothing more and nothing less.

Emily saw this and barked at Kokabiel.

"Is just this that you wanted? A shiny new prosthetic arm? Is everything you did worth it?"

Kokabiel turned to her and he looked like he just identified her after a while, so high was his happiness that nothing was registering properly.

"Yes, yes it was worth EVERYTHING." He shouted, starting a long tradition of most villains tend to do when they feel like they've won: give an unnecessarily long monologue. "You have no idea how I felt, having to lose my arm to 'dear father' because he wanted to 'teach me a lesson' after I fell and killed a just a measly few tens of thousands of humans to relieve my stress. To lose my right arm, the one that was my strongest point and that was where my magic core was located, just like this." He then took a deep breath and continued. "I even fell in level from low leader-class to a measly mid super-class, two WHOLE levels that no matter how I trained or what I did it could never return. But now, now it is a different story. I managed to obtain an arm with the power over hope, and it is a perfect fit for any angelic being, not only that but with the energy of the world in it, the potential it has is even greater than my own original right arm that was created to control a leader-class energy. And being the cherry of the cake the one that took my arm away is gone for good, so what he did is now as useless as he fucking was, take that stupid bloody bastard HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" And he finished with a large and deep laugh that reverberated on the entire field.

It is a LOT to take in, and as everyone was groveling on the ground, allies and enemies alike at Kokabiel's feet (just as he liked things to be), two people reacted to his words.

"Stop LYING!" Irina shouted. "God is almighty, he is omnipotent and he is an unstoppable force of good and justice in the world. He cannot be dead, he just can't!"

"Liar! Liar, liar, liar, LIAR! We feel God's blessings every time we pray, and we feel his light and love every day during our training as exorcists. It guided us and gave us the strength to continue those harsh days, how can you possibly blasphemy enough as to say that he is DEAD." Xenovia yelled with pure and absolute fury on her voice. This was the worst thing she could ever hear, a lie like no other as in her opinion there shouldn't even be possible for God to be dead. He was one of the less than 10 individuals that transcended leader-class, the absolute apex of the world in all aspects. How could he die and no one is the wiser?

Hearing those words and seeing the others also showing mistrustful and doubtful faces (those who were looking at him that is) Kokabiel could not help but laugh like he just heard the best joke of all times, like if this was the most hilarious thing he has ever heard and, in his opinion, it truly was.

"Michael and Gabriel are really doing a fine job in lying through their teeth. That those two didn't fall even after lying so blatantly is funny in its own way, nevertheless, those two still are complete cowards. So what if father died, good riddance to that old fucker. That was such a perfect excuse to reignite the war, but even if I decided to say anything those two would simply intervene and I would not last more than five full seconds under either of them in case they did came for me. Besides, no one would listen to me even if I said the truth." He said those words with a bite, as if he hated it all and especially the two topmost archangels in heaven in power (Michael [the one who is as God] and Gabriel [Strength of God]) but then he calmed down. "Well, at least now it doesn't really matter anymore. I will get my war by killing the two devil heiresses and also will kill this freak of nature to drive many others to enter this war as well." A smile that would be not lost on the Joker from the DC comics appeared on his face. "A fitting way to do things, a way that will make me the focus of this new war and the brightest start of this new dawn of a stronger world."

Hearing those words all Irina and Xenovia could rely on was their willpower so as to not pass out, they still refused to believe him but his words could somehow resonate with some of their innermost thoughts.

Why has no human seen God after the great war ended even if there were so many sights of the four remaining Archangels and so many that visited heaven?

Why is it that no new truly pure-blooded pure angel been born since the great war?

Why there has been no new archangel to receive the names of those who fell, to make heaven whole again?

These thoughts always plagued the two young girls' minds, the same was as it plagued the minds of many young exorcists. The young devils also reacted to those words quite intensely, they had always thought that God was alive and that he was the 'ultimate enemy' due to the power of heaven's system that could influence even other races and dimensions (even if a bit more limited), so hearing that this absolute was dead was quite the shock. On the other hand, those from the Tower did not react much, they had always been more distant to the concept of God and they had contact with some of the others that transcended Leader-class (namely Odin, Zeus, Shiva, and Izanagi-no-Okami) so for them the shock was lesser as they had some degree of experience with those entities and understood that it was not really that inconceivable for one such being dying, ridiculously hard as it may be.

As Kokabiel finished his speech he turned to Castiel who was out cold. The young heir was completely passed out due to the sheer stress and pain his body went through, his body was a true mess and it was visible to all as his body was releasing a constant shine due to all the blood vessels in his body be carrying energy so condensed that it turned into liquid. His body was shivering from time to time as what was left of his blood was expelled together with a lot of his bone marrow as the energy of the world was trying to reshape it to become part of the world itself, as it tried to phagocyte his body and whatever else was in there. The only things keeping it from happening is the right arm spirit bone that was devouring the energy and transforming it into usable power to him and his other two spirit bones that were automatically protecting him from the influence of the world that was trying to devour him.

Looking at the young man who was lying on the ground with all his blood removed from his body Kokabiel felt one thing and one thing only.

Disgust.

How could such creature dare to exist? How could his family never have decided to just kill this thing and cleanse the world of its shameful and twisted existence?

An idea appeared in his mind, he turned to those who still were on the floor looking at him, he gave them an even more twisted and evil smile as he said.

"If you really want proof that God is dead look no further, this abomination of nature is proof enough." He said as he raised a foot, stomping on Castiel without much care. the teen made little response, due to being unconscious, but a groan did escape his lips. Looking back upwards, Kokabiel sneered at the others while grinding his foot against the teen. "If there is any greater proof that God is dead than the fact that this thing here still DARES to breathe and contaminate the air with his existence I honestly don't know."

The way that her adoptive son got treated just then, it did more than a little to tick off a certain suit-wearing woman. "Take your filthy fucking feet off him!" Bazet barked, she already got some more strength in her but it was still not enough to face Kokabiel. However, if he continued stepping on her disciple in front of her eyes and saying whatever the fuck he wants, well she was never known as a very patient woman.

"Oh, you think my precious feet is dirty right? I can't deny that it is filthy now, after all, I did touch this insolent insect with it." He replied, shrugging his shoulders while removing his feet from a top of Castiel...

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, BANG!

Before stomping away at his prone form and then kicking him away that is.

"*inhale* Much better, the air is cleaner now. To think that even his presence is enough as to make the air polluted, it really is beyond my understanding how you guys never killed the little bastard. Don't you understand WHAT he is?" Kokabiel asked, but before Bazet could retort (and she had quite the repertoire of choice words to go through) another person decided to talk.

"Kokabiel-sama, I did my part of the deal. Now, could you give me the information that I requested so as to complete our transaction?" Valper Galilei said with a warm smile on his face and hands behind his back, in a way that no one could see his hands clenched to the point that blood was almost coming out of them due to the sheer pressure he put into them as it was the only way he could try and NOT do something stupid.

He needed this information, it was the one thing he needed above all else as it was the key to his revenge.

"Fine, fine, isn't it just the information about who were the actual killers? It is easy, they were the descendants of the original four Maous. There, now you know who were the ones responsible for Emiya Shirou's death. Happy?" Kokabiel said dismissively.

"No, it was not them. It is simply impossible for those weak bats to ever HOPE to even wound my master, it is simply impossible to be them." Galilei countered, much to Kokabiel delight.

"Hahahaha, good, good that you are not stupid enough as to actually believe this idiocy." Kokabiel nodded as he laughed, his mood truly was amazing right now. "It is true that those Old-Satan faction devils were responsible for his death, but not that they were the one killing him they just lured him into the trap where he was besieged by other beings, 10 individuals that were ALL at least mid leader-class with their leader being in the most extreme limit of the Leader-class, and even then it was not quite enough to kill him swiftly. The Sword Incarnate was truly a monster on the battlefield, but he was not enough to face this line up alone."

Hearing those words not only Galilei but the others there also trembled slightly. If Shirou really faced such line-up it wouldn't be strange for him to be killed, if anything it should be expected for it to happen. This line-up was enough to destroy the entire American continent in under 1 hour, and this is if they are not going all out, so facing a single person it could be imagined how devastating the battle would have been.

"So? Who were the ones that dared to do that? Who was it?" Galilei asked in a desperate fashion, abandoning all signs of fake calmness and of being right on his mind.

"It was..." Kokabiel said the name only to Galilei's ears, he knew that the group did NOT like to be known for many, but he would simply kill or imprison the old fool, later on, anyway so there wasn't much of a problem.

Galilei opened his eyes wide, the name of the ones responsible for taking away his master was engraved on his soul in such a way that even as a ghost he would NEVER forget the name of those who were responsible for it.

"Now that this is solved let's wrap this up and clean the house, shall we?" Kokabiel said with his usual fanfare and obnoxious way. He then raised his new right hand that shined with a metallic bronze color. "There is a certain poetic justice in killing this freak with this new right hand of mine, after all, he used his own blood to help on forging it and it also represents and caries HOPE so it is only fair that the hope of all that he was never born is made true." He said with a self-absorbing monologue, he is a classic second class villain after all.

"NO!" Emily yelled.

"STOP IT!" Kaguya and Yuzuru screamed together, not even saying things as usual.

"DON'T DO IT!" "PLEASE STOP IT!" "EMYIA-SEMPAI (-SAN, -SAMA)" the other yelled as well, only one person did not say anything of the sort as she took out a small metal ball that she carried with her.

SLAS-

" **SHAMBLES! FRAGARACH!** "

BLOCK

PIERCE

"Ghaahh!" Kokabiel gasped for breath as a small hole was made on his right lung, dangerously close to his heart.

Everyone gasped as well, but instead of pain, it was of surprise due to how things changed WAY too fast. Going back a bit and going detail by detail this is what happened.

When Kokabiel slashed with Argetlan, so as to pulverize Castiel, Kuroko used her balance breaker to change Castiel for her newly made noble phantasm passed down on her family, the ultimate form of counter-attack, the Retaliator known as Fragarach. It had the ability to reverse time of an attack executed to right before it started and launch an attack first at the enemies heart and could be considered a 'sure-kill' weapon, unfortunately Koroko was still inexperienced with it and she activated it from a distance and in a hurry so instead of killing Kokabiel she only managed to wound him.

But this also meant that now they FINALLY managed to wound him seriously and that Castiel was no longer on his hands, he was in Kuroko's instead. She looked at all of this and smiled knowing that she saved him.

"How DARE YOU INSOLENT LITTLE FOOL!" Kokabiel shrieked before launching a light spear at Kuroko out of anger, he understood quickly enough that the guilty of wounding him was the young girl holding the abomination. "Give him to me now, he is an affront to the world itself and must die no matter what."

"No, you are just a cowardly old crow that hides and attacks those weaker than you only. You never risk yourself and acts imposing only to those weaker than you. You are a coward, weak, and petty person and my Onii-sama is 100, no 1000 times better than you will ever be! The one that should have that metal arm thingy is him, not you!" Kuroko yelled while embracing Castiel's body. She was honest to a fault and she regularly says what came to her mind, thus her words.

Kuroko was raised as a warrior by great warriors, she always heard her father stories about how the best warriors and man should be like, how they act and what they do to be called great; she also regularly heard from her mother about how a bad leader can be a disaster and that those should never be trusted, and she should trust someone depending on their actions and not just their words. That is why she admired Castiel, he was the definition of what she believed to be the ideal warrior, and the ideal leader, was supposed to be. He worked harder than everyone else and always tried his hardest to save everyone he cared about or worked under him, even if it hurts him immensely in the end, and even if he says some things she doesn't like (the age thing being one of the main ones) she trusts his actions and him too much.

He is the man she wants to be with, and no one will take that away from her.

So, hearing Kokabiel, someone that was as far away from her ideals as it could ever be, calling her beloved Onii-sama all of those things, saying that he is an abomination, freak, affront to the world, and everything else, well it was just too much for her young mind.

When Kokabiel heard the young girl's words he admittedly wanted to destroy her for daring to talk against him. Oh, he wanted that so much. But, instead he didn't. He felt that it would not be good for him to do it. He knew that there was most definitely many who were watching from a distance, strong individuals and those from other factions that were looking at this little 'show' for amusement, and if he was to give vent and attack her as it is many would start to believe that what she said might be the truth.

Again, those who lived for as long as he did normally care a lot about appearances and it would be terrible for him if he was to be known as weak and a coward. It would be the worse thing possible for him.

"Oho, so I am worse than that thing you are carrying, huh. Well, shall we put it to test then?" His smile got cold and full of ridicule as he said this. "I will give you people 10 minutes to wake him up and give him as much strength as you can possibly do. I will even remove the gravity on you guys and let you do as you please. Killing you all right now or in 10 minutes wouldn't make much of a difference to someone on my level anyway." As he finished saying this Kokabiel sat down on his throne and waved at Lugh to stop the gravity.

Lugh did as he said and everyone could stand up again, it was even possible to hear some bones trembling quite a bit under the strain as everyone started standing up. Those under Kokabiel rushed to his side, but he just said "Go and be a shame somewhere else" sending all of them out of this battlefield. Normally hearing those words would be terrible to any soldier, as if their efforts were being looked down on and were being ridiculed by their leader, but in this particular case, none of those fallen cared at all. They all wanted nothing more than get away from there, to be freed from this battlefield that reaped away so many of their friends and family.

Meanwhile, Castiel was being surrounded by all of those from his side. He was on a terrifying condition, he looked like he lost many pounds and was paler than before. His body was shining a bit due to the energy that replaced his blood but it was clear after a session of structural grasping that he was beyond simply in bad conditions. His magic circuits were extremely damaged, in special the ones closer to his back. They normally looked like lines where his energy passed through in that area, but now it was nothing more than a tangled mess with damages all over them. The strangest part, however, was how his muscles and organs were adapting to the excess energy, with more damage than most could ever hope to survive from. Even his soul seemed to be in a bad condition as the energy of the world itself was wrecking rampage through it all and some strange symbols were putting it in an even greater pressure like it was trying hard to seal and suppress it all. If it wasn't for his three spirit bones he would have died long ago. His left leg spirit bone was protecting his body from any foreign bad influences, making the world energy that invaded his body not be connected to the one outside and thus limited its power and influence. His head spirit bone was protecting his mind and stopping him from becoming nothing but a puppet and be influenced by the world's energy. And his left arm spirit bone was the one that was working on overdrive to transform all the energy that was circulating in his body into something usable and part of the body instead of external.

If he continued like this for a while he could most likely survive this ordeal, but it would simply take way too long and if he could do it by himself was doubtful at best. Therefore, Okuyasu and Miku started working on him. Okuyasu quickly healed him of the injuries of his body, but he could only heal his normal injuries like his ruptured organs, fractured bones (that was basically all of them), and split muscles that were all over. Even then those would simply break again in a matter of 2 or three seconds so he had to do it over and over again, a process of breaking and healing that looked completely pointless but took longer and longer to happen each time, Castiel's body was adapting to this new condition slowly and VERY painfully.

Meantime, Miku was using her music magic to try and help his magic circuits somehow, but it was terrible, to say the least. His wounds there were even worse than in his body and she could only try to do what she could for him. His magic circuits and soul were what could only be described as a battlefield right now, and Miku could only use her magic to try and calm down those different energies coming from the world and Castiel's own body. It was a slow process that would have been nigh impossible without the help of the spirit bones, but it would be hard to make it in time for the fight Kokabiel desired.

The others were also trying to help as they could, Sona was using her water magic to help in healing and pacifying his spirit since water magic had some degree of benefits in this area; Emily was trying to send him some light energy to do the same but it was not working so well since the energy was mostly being sucked away to somewhere in Castiel's soul and the amount that remained was of limited help at best; Bazet was scribing some runes on his body to try and help, it was mostly to see if she could make his body tougher for a time so as to help to slow down the breaking and fixing process that Okuyasu was executing on him; Yuno was trying to use magecraft andother types of magic to help stimulate his mind to see if she could awaken him because if he was ta awaken he might be capable of fighting off the damages done on his body himself.

The others could only watch on the side, looking out for any potential attacks from Kokabiel, but there were two that honestly did not have their 'minds on the game'. The two young exorcists could only think about Kokabiel's words, denying his story about God's death over and over but believing their own thoughts less and less as time passed. It was terrifying for the both of them, but it was especially so for Irina as her faith was always bigger and more extreme than Xenovia's, so hearing those 'blasphemies' was more than she could take.

Suddenly someone put a hand on her right shoulder. She was startled, so much of her attention elsewhere that she failed to notice even that someone approached her so much. Turning to look at who was it that was touching her she saw her childhood friend Issei. He gave her a warm smile as he said.

"Don't worry. Even if God really is not around we still are, I still am, and I will protect you no matter what." That melted her heart more than the young boy could understand. She has always put all of her soul and being thinking about God, and knowing he was not around anymore was a bigger blow than most could ever imagine. But, those simple words her friend said might as well have saved her otherwise she might not have managed to survive this blow and could have done something... extreme.

"T-thanks, Issei-kun." She said to him. He nodded hearing this and noticed how she relaxed somewhat, it was a good sign as he was simply too worried for her otherwise.

He then talked to her for some more time before going to see Rias who was showing a very worried face right now.

"Buchou, is everything alright?" He asked.

"No, it is not alright at all Issei. We are all under that monster" She pointed at Kokabiel who just smirked at her after hearing those words of 'complement'. "And I am too weak to do anything useful about it. My brother could have killed him in under two minutes, and at my age, he was strong enough to face those equal to Kokabiel with no problem. But, but WHY AM I SO WEAK?!" She yelled, her voice echoed with what many were thinking. Well, those who weren't desperately trying to help Castiel.

Hearing this Issei did not know exactly what to do, so he just started talking whatever came to his mind.

"Buchou, I am not that experienced, fighting against monsters, fallen angels, and stray devils is something that I could not even begin to imagine doing less than a year ago. But, if I were to guess it would be because we didn't even train seriously until we had no other choice. We were too lax in our normal lives, thinking that the peace would last forever. At least, that's what I think, anyway, those guys Cas calls friends, and Cas himself, have been fighting since they were young, so its natural that they are better than us right now." Issei told her, and much to her dismay, Rias couldn't find it in her to disagree with him. They definitely had been too lax in their training, they hadn't the same danger in their lives as Castiel and the others.

Looking upwards to Kokabiel, Issei scowled in anger and frustration. His King wasn't the only one who had those frustrations, but unlike her, he had seen what Castiel was like, way more than she had. Memories of the time where he helped Issei after the Raiser incident came to mind. "But still, we're all here right now, Buchou, so we gotta pull through. If we can't do it alone, then we have no choice but to give it our altogether. It's pretty much our only option at this point."

"B-but how can you be sure? How can you say this?" Rias asked, fully showing her weak and indecisive side. She was, in the end, a girl that was pampered growing up and it was only for a few months that started to put her in a tough spot after the other. She was not yet an iron blooded leader that could do anything for her subordinates and she wasn't yet ready for the world at large, but the world did not wait for her.

Issei simply said a few words to her then.

"Because I am the Red Dragon Emperor, the servant of Rias Gremory the Princess of Destruction and one of the bravest and most wonderful girls I have ever seen." Hearing this Rias blushed so much that her face was turning into a similar color to her hair.

She wanted to talk some more, but a voice interrupted them.

"Get a room you two, I am trying not to die here and these talks are not helping my case at fucking all. God my everything hurts."

Everyone turned to see the one that talked then, and with a face that looked about to pass out and with only two minutes left for the fighting time, Castiel had woken up.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Well, that took a while to fix.**

 **I was trying to fix the chapter the best I could, get any mistakes out and make it as great as I could. I am happy to say that the next time I launch a chapter will take a while but when I do it will be a triple release as the next part is probably the most important until now for the story until this point.**

 **It will take a lot of me to get it right, and I have a test that may as well determine the rest of my life this and next sunday so at the earliest I will need to wait until monday 12 to release, and it may take more.**

 **Again, this test is VERY important to me and I want to focus as much as possible on it so don't expect me to release before that.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the mess that was this chapter and will read the next three.**

 **They will explain why Castiel was used for this whole ritual and explain some of the mysteries that still weren't explained before such as who is Castiel's mother and why he has never met her. Why he has such an absurdly high number of magic circuits and all being of such abysmal quality and a few other things.**

 **I hope you guys will enjoy, this is something I planned from day one of when I started planing this story.**


	76. Chapter 70

**Part 1 of 3 from the special release**

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

My everything hurts right now… is what I would normally say considering how it truly is not that good, but when I compare to what I was feeling not long ago this is a blessing. It is like comparing the pain of stepping on some needles with being slammed over 100Km/hour on a mountain of metal spines over and over again, that is how much pain I was not long ago so feeling my muscles tearing apart by the sheer pressure of the energy circulating in my body now and the energy that is clearly too much trying to destroy my soul is clearly not much anymore.

Yep, I can still somehow work even in this conditions, but if possible I would rather sleep until next week and then ask for five more days. Even a coma seems like a good idea.

Looking around I see that everyone is wounded around me, especially Yuno that was full of burn marks.

Shit.

Why? Why does this shit need to happen? Why did I let them get hurt in the first place? These are MY people and the girls I love; how can I have let this happen this easily. I, I want to be stronger to protect them.

BABUM

Wow, what the fuck was that just now? I felt like an electric current passed through my body, resonating with something I can't describe. Again, what the fuck? What the hell is happening to my fucking body?

Breath, Castiel you need to take a deep breath to calm down. Being nervous is the enemy right now, focus your mind on what is most important right now, to survive this shit storm.

Looking around I turned to Bazet as I trusted that she could give me the most direct and complete answer about what happened until now.

"Bazet-sensei, what happened? Is everyone alright? And when will reinforcements arrive?" I asked.

"First, everyone is alive but mostly spent. Second, we have around two and a half minutes to put you to battle Kokabiel again, or at least fight together against him but the chances are not in our favor regardless. Third I managed to receive a message from Rider not long ago and she said she will be getting here in at most 5 minutes so you need to last for at least 2 minutes against him." Bazet explained.

"Wait fucking a second, why don't we all gang up on that shitty bastard up there? It would be much easier this way." Okuyasu interjected, with Issei and some of the others agreeing.

Sighing I explained.

"Because of his name."

"And what does his name has to do with anything?" Issei asked.

"Because it does. Angels are an interesting and very unique species since they were created by God himself and, in the creation process, he decided to make each one of his strongest angels special in their own way thus he gave them special names. Those names represent and relate to some special and unique abilities that those angels have, and even if fallen Kokabiel still retains the power related to his name, the power as the _star of God_. With it, he can release absurdly powerful heat waves from his body when he wants and can release light energy much faster and sronger than those in the same rank." I explained making some of them look like they were thinking about what I said, while some were showing horrified expressions. "If you still don't understand think like this, if he uses the power of his name numbers against him become meaningless as he can just launch a heat wave at all directions at once. I cannot allow for you guys to go through with this as it would only make everyone even more wounded." I said, and I mean every word of it.

Helping me is one thing, but fighting him in a most likely deadly scenario where the chance of survival if many go together decreases instead of increases is simply against my 'moral code'. I am the heir to the Tower and I will not allow for those under me to die as long as I can help it.

Besides, the best way to survive this day is to not make Kokabiel to agitated and just buy time, with some luck I can buy enough time to survive this, and I honestly don't feel that I will die here. I passed through just too many survival trainings so the survival instincts that I cultivated there tell me the best way to live another day is like this.

Not that I will like it, as I am pretty sure that by the end I will probably see this pain I am feeling right now and miss it. That is if I survive this fucking fight.

Let's try to activate my magic circuits, I will definitely need it for the fi-

"Gghaa *SPLURT*" Fuck, this hurts worse than I thought it would. My circuits are all locked due to the excessive energy circulating on them, and to make matters worse they are a total mess and I doubt I will manage to use them any time soon if I stay like this. I mean, even only trying to activate them was enough for me to spit bloo… since when is my blood silvery white? Is this even blood now? What the fuck happened to my body exactly.

I need to think. What happened to my body is not important for the current situation, we are on a battle against time and I need to be capable of getting up end go do what I must in the first place regardless of what is happening to me. I must protect and shield everyone.

Now, how can I force my energy to move? How to force this body of mine to move even in this situation?

Huh, that is one idea.

"Issei, can your boosted gear focus in what exactly it will double when you transfer?" I asked, but instead of Issei, it was Ddraig that answered.

" **Mostly yes, but be warned that part of the boost goes to everything no matter what.** " The dragon said with a serious voice.

"And does the balance breaker has any special effect on the boosting and transferring?" I asked

" **Yes, with the balance breaker the time of boost is shortened depending on the emotional state of the user and the transfer can last longer and reach everything instead of single thing like magic energy or physical capacity, but if focused on a single thing it grows more that one aspect.** " Ddraig said, he probably understood my idea already.

"Good, so Issei I need you to enter balance breaker and accumulate as many boosts as you can before sending them all to me focussed in my soul. Maybe by reinforcing my soul to beyond the normal limit, I can force the energy in my body and magic circuits to move enough for me to fight properly." I said, receiving a LOT of voices telling me not to do that. (Author Note: a soul, in this case, is more like the control center and producer of magic energy. This is what I decided as a way to explain a bit more on the magic circuits that produces energy that comes from the soul and I kind off got inspired by the wuxias I've been reading, those are great BTW)

I understand their emotions, and I agree that this is a suicidally stupid idea that should never be implemented no matter the situation. Doing this can lead to outright dying or damaging even more my magic circuits, and those already are one step away from total lost. I agree with them and understand their worries, but between no chance at all of surviving this and a high chance of me dying but with a chance to live, I'd rather try my luck.

"Shut it." I said in a loud voice to silence them all while taking out Clarent, the charisma it grants me is especially useful for this sort of situations after all. "This is MY decision, and even if it is stupid it still is what I believe is for the best and I will follow it through." With a glare they all could not oppose me, charisma really is a fearsome ability. "Issei, please do what I said as it is the best chance we will have of surviving this. Please."

The boy looked torn, he knew that this could possibly cripple or kill me, but in the end he nodded his head and activated his balance breaker. Seeing this I nodded and started relaying orders to the others around me.

"Yuno, I want you to start casting as many reinforcement spells on me as you possibly can. The focus should be on raising my reflexes and heat resistance. Miku, you and Okuyasu must stay focussed on healing my body as much as you can but you must focus more on my magic circuits as I will need them to be as good as possible. Bazet-sensei, if you can continue to scribe in my body more runes please do so, even if you think it would be for the best to use a carving knife to carve them in my skin or muscles I would not care right now as long as they are effective. The others must try to recover what energy you can, oh and if someone has Phoenix Tears I will need as many as possible right now just to make sure as I won't focus my powers on healing myself and focus only on attacking him. Also, for those who can move I want you to bring me as many of the corpses here, the more the merier." I declared and everyone started moving as I said.

Yuno's use of witchcraft was very good and I could quickly feel strength returning to my members as she started her high-speed chanting. She might be more capable with her control over the death laws and her sacred gear but that doesn't mean she doesn't know her way around with magecraft and witchcraft, quite the opposite considering who her mother is. She is very balanced in all aspects and someone that I can count on when the times request it to.

Okuyasu's healing did wonders, I can even feel that when my muscles return to how they should be instantly. And now that I am awake I can at least try to use the moments when it is normal to try and use said muscles to force this 'blood' of mine to move so as to lessen the stress on my muscles, otherwise if this damaging continued I might not even be capable of standing in front of that fucking crow.

Bazet was painting or carving my body with runes, in the literal sense of the word. She has a small knife in hands as she worked on my skin as much as she could, putting down the same kind of runes that she has carved on her clothes that even now are quite complete and without large damages. It is a type of 'tattoo' that I originally did not want at all, but considering how this is such a shitty situation I can't think about my aesthetics.

Miku was also working hard, I could feel that her music magic was helping my magic circuits to recover from the absurdly extensive damage that was done to them. She truly is miraculous, normally those injuries would take at least weeks under the best care from the Tower but she can do the same within a minute, a truly rare talent that I got here with me.

I also received the Phoenix Tears that the others had made a grand total of 4 vials. Not much but, with luck, it will be enough.

As the time of the fight approached I stood up, I could feel my muscles and bones protesting against it but I choose not to focus on it. I decided to change from Clarent to Hruting, the higher physical prowess it will give me is more interesting right now that a raise overall. Keeping the fight as close combat is to my advantage since, otherwise, Kokabiel might decide to use the power of his name in large scale and kill the others.

I walked towards a pile of corpses that were there. Franky-aniki was carrying a giant monster on his shoulders, considering how the Franky Shogun (good I love that robot) is not being used it was probably damaged by something, and considering how he keeps muttering something about how he should have accounted for gravity I would say that it was probably Lugh's **Crocear Mors.** I did manage to talk to her, even if barely, before being stabbed by some mystic code-shaped chains so I know that she is here to protect her father above all else, even if she did say that she had a secondary objective.

As I approached the pile of corpses I knew I was doing something BEYOND stupid, but it was the best option right now.

STAB

As I pierced the pile I could feel Hruting draining the blood from it all, its curse taking effect as I felt my mind getting heavy by the excessive amount of bloodlust that was surging from the sword, but at least I could stand it somehow. If anything I could feel like something deep within my soul was welcoming this curse like it resonated with me and was somehow still under my control in a similar way than my other curse-based magics are.

Feeling the limit of what my body could take approaching I took a deep breath and turned to Issei, he was on his balance breaker and the sound of boosts were coming almost every three seconds. The power he was releasing was quite potent, easily on the same level than a mid ultimate-class, but it was clear that he was approaching his current limits.

"Emiya-san, are you sure this is okay? You may die if we go through with it." He warned me.

I nodded in his direction as I said in a firm voice.

"Yes, this is my decision." with this higher energy on my soul I would manage to focus and fight properly, even use some of my magic attacks that are good for close combat, against that smug bastard.

Nodding to me he put his hand on my shoulder.

" **TRANSFER!** "

And the draconic energy entered my soul.

It is like my mind and perception of everything expanded to WAY beyond what was normal. Heck, I doubt I ever felt this much control over myself as I do right now. Finally, I can feel my magic circuits operating, even if there is something trying hard to not let me use it, almost as if there is somethig trying its best to keep my power sealed. Now that my perception has raised I can see that it looks like little chains inside my magic circuits, they feel similar to the stuff that is somehow working as my blood right now but at the same time different as if they are of the same type of power but with different objectives altogether. Like comparing mineral water and ocean water, the two look the same at first glance and are quite similar but the difference between the two is beyond obvious when you know what to look for.

Regardless, I must not dwell on it right now. Now what I have to do is take that feathery asshole over there and fight him for at the very least two minutes. But before that.

"Issei, thanks for the transfer. If you can continue charging and transfer more energy to me when you think it is for the best, an overall boost this time." I told the young pervert. I then turned to the others and said. "You guys must make sure to protect him, he is essential if we want to have a chance of surviving this thing."

Hearing many "Roger!" from the others I turned to my enemy. He was taking his sweet time to taste a glass of wine, but when he saw me looking at him he made a displeased face and spilled it all out.

"Dammit, even your eyes are disgusting. Is it because of what you are or because of your heritage that makes it so that just looking at your pathetic existence infuriates me?" Kokabiel asked rethorically, clearly not interested in an answer, but I decided to change things up a bit.

"What, are you mad because you are a failure that could not even die properly on the previous great war and can only fight children that cannot fly while flying yourself? What, are you this afraid that I might kill you if you stay on the ground like me?" I asked back with a snark. My sword still in the pile of bodies as, thanks to my more powerful soul right now, I could take more of the curse energy from Hruting and my body was getting stronger by the instant.

"How dare you? You think I need to fly to win against you?" He said, and then came down from the skies. "See I also am on the ground now let's sta-"

SLASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

BOOM

Before he could react, probably because he was too distracted over how 'great' and 'superior' he is (note the sarcasm), I sprinted to where he was using a mana burst (I feel that I might have damaged my foot's magic circuits further) and used Hruting to attack his belly in a way that would make professional baseball players proud. Thanks to the absurd amount of physical strength I have right now due to Hruting's power I sent him through the school building (or what was left of it, I am pretty sure that the school was twice this size when I came here last time and it wasn't mostly rumble), and passing through a lot of walls.

Not giving him any time I moved at the same time he was sent flying, trying to keep up with him. After flying through many walls he managed to stabilize himself by using his hands to claw on the ground.

"How dare you attack me your insignif-"

Not carrying about what he wanted to say I caught up with him and gave his face a taste of my flying knee, and as I felt his nose crack a bit I followed by expanding said leg after contact and gave him an extra dose of an ax-kick right to the face. His face kissed the ground in a spectacular fashion, making a 'small' crater on the ground where his face touched.

My only chance is to continue to pressure him, and so I did by using some small bones I caught from the pile of bodies to create twenty cursed dragon tooth soldiers. All of them started trying to hack Kokabiel as he was standing up, but he blasted them away with a wave of one of his wings. Not that I mind since their effect is at its strongest when someone breaks them. I put in all of them the curse **WEAKNESS** so as to make sure that his powers decrease even if a little. I continued by taking advantage of the instant that his wings moved to circulate around him and deliver a vicious kick to his sides.

He was then sent flying to outside the school, but this time he managed to spend his wings in such way so as to stop his flying trajectory. He then decided to no longer waste his time to insult me and to simply sent one light spear in my direction, probably thinking I could not react as it did move very fast.

Foolish mistake. He still sees me as a weak prey, and while I admit that I am much weaker than him in absolute power I will not be defeated that easily thanks to my preparations and the absurdly abundant energy that is in my ody right now (somehow even this strange blood seems like pure energy to me). Proof being that I continued running towards his as his spear approached my face, but I choose not to evade it. There would be no point, part because Hruting demanded nothing less than to attack my prey in the most direct and perfect way at all times, but mostly because of...

SLICE

SPLIT

BOOM

I honestly did not need to evade this one.

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

"Fuck, was he always this strong?" Issei asked, but no one answered him as they were too busy looking at this battle.

There have been not even 5 seconds since when Castiel turned Kokabiel in the world's ugliest baseball from when he came out of the school and sliced one of Kokabiel's light spears. They were now exchanging moves at very high speed. It was to the point that it was even hard to look at them since the dust in the ground was raising due to the sheer speed that the two were moving now. Castiel had the clear advantage on physical power, his body was being reinforced to way beyond what he normally could and the curse of Hruting was raising it that much further, while Kokabiel had the clear advantage on defense and even if slower he was using two arms against one. But somehow the battle was still quite balanced.

Bazet was the only one there to notice how Castiel was moving his foot in a special pattern, one that she recognized very well as it was a setting up for a runic spell, and if she was right... yep, she was. A wave of ice covered Kokabiel, locking him in place for some time. Considering the sheer power the fallen has at his disposal it would likely not last long, but considering Castiel's skills he would not need long anyway.

Castiel moved his hand in front of him creating a series of runes that released bolts of lightning at Kokabiel still frozen form while also creating more cursed dragon tooth warriors. Kokabiel took one more second to get out of the ice due to the shock, but when he got out he failed to see how Castiel positioned his cursed puppets in such a way that breaking out would instantly break them, thus cursing Kokabiel further and making him a bit weaker than before.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

As this plan was executed I used a mana burst to fly a distance away from Kokabiel as I set up as many trap runes and soldiers in his path as possible.

The effect of Issei's boost are already starting to run out as I fel that wathever that is trying to seal my powers to try and sel my current energy and boosts as well. I, however, had no way to stop or understand what is going on as Kokabiel is already advancing. I hope Issei already charged some more, if he has any more to give I need it right now because my base power is simply not enough to do shit against this freak.

When I got to Issei I didn't even need to say anything as the guy already had accumulated a bunh of boosts in his gear, I could even hear the words repeat themselves way too much as he probably is straining himself to give me the best he can get.

I will not let it go to waste!

"Issei! Transfer me the power!"

"Understood!" He yelled back as he flew at me and it was clear that he was barely holding up as he already was quite tired, he got close enough to me and I heard a TRANSFER as energy entered my body further.

PAIN

EXCRUCIATING PAIN

W-What is happening to me?

My back is burning as if there is actual magma and acid betting on who can make it worse there. Fuck, I can even feel those strange chain-like things in my magic circuits breaking one after another and damaging my circuits even further.

But, I must not dwell on this. The two minutes' mark is fast approaching and if I can survive another minute or so Rider will probably be here.

Kokabiel launched himself at me, light spear in hand as he went to try and pierce me with it while ignoring all the soldiers I put in his path. I kicked Issei out of the way and put Hruting in front of my body so as to defend against Kokabiel's attack.

Heavy. Are his attacks are getting heavier and heavier, or is my strength already shrinking? I feel clearly as my muscles and magic circuits are almost being ripped apart by those chain like things as they snap faster and faster.

"Hey, hey, you are getting weaker there, you abomination of nature. What happened to all that energy that you were throwing around? If you are this weak you will be shaming that whore of a mother that made the sin of birthing something like you!" Kokabiel mocked while attacking me with a light spear. I got to say but fallen angels really are too focused on one thing only, it is like they all have one main pattern of fighting for all of them. Make a light spear and attack with it, it is like they never think about using their light manipulation for anything else. I ignored his words as I simply continued to fight him, which probably annoyed him further.

Which was proven true with his next words.

"That eye, it may have a different collor but are just too similar to hers. Stop looking at me like that, you deformed worm!" As he sai that his speed and power increased further, but thankfully I was barelly able to keep up thanks to the power granted by Hruting.

Well, at least he is not using the power of his name right now. That would totally suck as it would be an instant lost.

And I had to tempt fate.

" **Kokabiel**." The old crow said, and with this heat was all I could feel.

The heat and light is everywhere, it is like the world was replaced by the sun, as if his mere presence was enough to illuminate and burn half of mount Fuji. It is EVERYWHERE.

AND IT FUCKING HURTS! Why the hell did I have to tempt fate? Just WHY? Didn't I already know that fate and luck seems to hate my guts?

"Hahahaha, how do you like the feeling of your skin melting and meat boiling over? This is what you deserve for being born!" He asked as he kicked me.

CRACK

I think he might have broken some of my ribs just now.

"Hey, weren't you oh so great when you kicked me earlier? Huh? When you dared to touch me with those filthy hands and look at me with those disgusting eyes!" Kokabiel mocked me, but I can't answer him at all. Reason? Well, my face is very much fucked up due to the heat he released so there is that. "Is the heat and light strong enough? Do you want more?"

PIERCE

"Gghaaa!" He punched me with his new arm right through the liver. I, I must concentrate. Exclude all feelings from the body, ignore everything else, I need to do something.

 _crack_

Anything.

 _crack_

I need more power than I have right now.

 _crack_

"I guess this is it for you. I will kill you now." He then caught my head and turned it to force me to look at his stupid face. "And after I am done with you, it will be the time for the others." I proved myself as making miracles because widening my… was the world always just the left side? Why can't I see from the right at all? Fuck, it does not fucking matters right now! I can't let them die! They are under MY protection! "Just know that if it wasn't for you they would have survived. If it wasn't for you they would have ran away sooner. If it wasn't for you and your _weakness_."

I-I need strength. I need to do something.

 _Crack_

 _Crack_

I must protect them! I just have to as it is my responsibility.

 _Crack_

 _Crack_

 _Crack_

 _Crack_

"Now, DIE!" Kokabiel said, a light spear releasing absurd amounts of heat came down on me.

It is funny, it is like everything is coming in super slow motion. I can see the spear approaching, the others trying to reach me after what looks like a firewall was lifted, and I can even see Lugh running in my direction with a determined expression. But, this is so strange. Why is the sky shining in gold and releasing a powerful light energy?

Fuck, this gives me one idea. A crazy ass, stupid as fuck and, most likely, suicidal idea. I will try to delve even higher in the feeling I have when I try to make a new blessing. Maybe, even if I am to fall I can make sure to help the others protect themselves with it. It is the best I can think off right now, it is my responsibility and desire to save them. I will NOT end without a last 'fuck you' to this asshole.

 _CrAck_

 _CraCk_

 _cRacK_

I started feeling myself flying higher and higher, many of those snapped chains in my way but they simply could not stop my ascension.

 _Cra **CK**_

 ** _C_** _ra **c** K_

I _need_ to fly higher. Even as I feel those lights in the sky burning away part of me, even as I feel that it will possibly destroy my soul, I MUST NOT STOP. I will shield them from all harm. This is what I want, and even if greedy I will catch whatever is in this weird-ass space to do it. Even if I feel this strange aloofness and holiness from this whole sky getting more and more intense, I will not stop in trying to take away whatever I can that can help me save those I MUST save.

 _CRAC-_

I can see it, the last chain trying to resist whatever the fuck is happening. And I can also feel deep down that there is something there that can help me. Something that will make sure that I can save them, that I can shield them, that I may even survive this.

But, it is behind this last chain.

Then it is fine, this seems to be the end, it is how it is so I can't really do a thing. I tried using whatever I could to break this last lock and nothing worked, but I am sure that the others will probably be safe now with so little time left they will probably survive even without my protection. So, it is fine right?

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 _LIKE HELL IT IS_!

Break, stupid chain break RIGHT THIS INSTANT!

Who the hell you think you are? Getting in the way of this heir, do you doubt I will devour you too? I will bring you fucking down and slaughter you and anything that gets in my fucking path. I will bite and break you no matter what you fucking are!

SO

DON'T

GET

IN

MY

WAY!

 ** _CRACK_**

 ** _BREACK_**

Looking as Kokabiel was close to hitting my chest, I even feel the heat coming out of his spear as I shouted the name of what is my best chance of surviving this, instincts I never knew I had flooding my body and mid as I did it. What was hidden and sealed within myself, blocked and taken away from me was to be released now.

birthrightght.

 **" _CASTIEL!"_**

And my wings opened.


	77. Chapter 71

**Part 2 of three of the special**

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

That moment was eternalized in the eyes of many.

Everyone in the field was running in the same direction, all trying to save the young man who was lying down with a spear fast approaching. Kuroko could not teleport there due to the fact that her balance breaker had deactivated by itself due to the fact that it was still new to her and she was not yet used to the mental pressure. The same could be said about Tsubaki's who was going through the exact same thing.

But, even as they all ran in the direction of the young man they could not help but curse how fast things turned around. At one moment Castiel and Kokabiel were fighting in somewhat similar levels, and even if he was being pushed back Castiel was still holding up, but out of nowhere Kokabiel used the power of his name and released an unbelievable amount of heat and light. If it wasn't for Ilyaelia releasing a firewall and controlling the heat to not approach then they would have all be burned to a crisp.

However, they knew that the situation for them might be dire but for Castiel was many levels worst. He was in the closest proximity to this after all, and all the heat that reached them was nothing in comparison.

After a few excruciating seconds the light and heat stopped, and when they could see the results of the attack they realized just why those on Super-class were known as the starting point of being a TRUE power to be reckoned with. The school grounds were all turned into scorched earth as if a meteor passed through. The threes that were on the distance were all either on fire or already nothing more than cinders, what was left of the building was nothing more than melted rock that looked closer to magma than normal rocks or rumble.

Nevertheless, what caught the attention of all was the fallen angel aiming his light spear at the young man. Castiel looked truly awful right now. His hair was fully gone and his face and body were covered in ugly and terrifying burn scars, some parts of his skin still looked like they were bubbling and it was possible to see the bone in many different places. Even his right eye was nothing more than an empty hole, his eye evaporated completely. A truly terrifying vision, such was the state he was in.

But, it was the following moments when he faced Kokabiel with his one eye and the light spear was close to piercing through his chest that marked the memory of all who saw it.

" **CASTIEL!** (Shield of God)" The young man shouted as he released a burst of light and darkness of absurd purity. Impossible 8 wings surged on his back, the left half was shiny and golden like the purest gold and released such a pure and holy aura that could compel many to bow just by looking at it. And one of this four wings managed to stop the spear as if it was nothing, the wing was akin to a golden shield that was made to shield and protect him from all. The right half, however, was the one that made no sense. It was four fallen angel wings that had an obsidian luster, it was as if someone caught the darkest shadows of a moonless night and used them to create wings, but the tips were all in blood red and with many small words in each and every feather creating an ominous feeling that was the exact antithesis of his golden and holy wings.

As his wings spread he started rising from the ground. He could not move his body at all, the damage and burns simply too intense to allow for that, but his one eye was glaring with pure rage at Kokabiel even as what was left of his skin started falling down together with chared muscles, his figure terrifying as he only had one eye now and one arm as his skin was mostly black of chared red, no more golden hair on his head as even spots of bone could be seen slightly. He was looking more like a zombie than a human or anything else, but his determination was still moving him forward.

Looking at this scene Kokabiel wanted to throw up, this is the most disgusting existence in the whole world to him, someone that was half fallen and half pure angel, and someone that even went as far as to 'steal' the power of one of the names of his brother of old, of one of the twelve archangels, Castiel the Shield of God. His very existence was intolerable, an insult to the world and all fallen and pure angels as far as Kokabiel was concerned he was justice by putting down this creature.

He then flew higher, shining as the star his name indicated and shouted to all those who were there and the ones he knew were watching from across the globe.

"This is the proof, the proof that God died long ago. There can be no other explanation for such being to be even possible otherwise." He said pointing at Castiel that was barely managing to float in mid-air. "If God is dead, then such being can exist. Someone that carries both the holy and dark element, blessings and curses on his back. An existence that is an affront to all who exist in this world, a true monster!"

As he continued to enjoy the sound of his own voice the others were about to reach Castiel when Kokabiel looked down and gave an evil smile as, with one movement of his hand, released many quickly made light spears.

These spears flew simply too fast and before long they were all uppon the people there who were trying to help Castiel and those who were still roted in place due to shock.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMM

A chain of explosions happened as the spears hit their targets, dust and debris flying all around. Kokabiel was pleased while looking at this, he now only had to kill that freak and the war could begin at large.

SHINE

"Huh?" Kokabiel said as he noticed something shining on that cloud of smoke. In the following moment, it was clear to him as to what exactly was shining there.

It were many golden 'cubes' with one golden feather in the center, the same technique that the original Archangel Castiel used when he had to protect others, the thing that God used as the basis for the sacred gear DImension Lost's skill in making separate spaces to take the damage away to the outside of this dimension.

" **Divine Protection.** Now you cannot touch them anymore." The cracked voice of Castiel echoed on the battlefield. It was cracked and was not loud, mostly due to how his throat was burned so much that it was possible to see his carotid arteries circulating that white substance that replaced his blood, but, even so, there was a certain authority on his voice making it so that everyone could hear him loud and clear. "I don't know what is going on or why I know this shit, but I know that you can fucking forget about touching even a single one of them, asshole." And of course, he tried to show him the middle finger but failed as his middle finger was mostly chared meat and cracked bones right now.

Kokabiel looked possess, he could not believe or accept that his attack was stopped just like that by a brat using a power that was not and could not be his. However, he knew enough about the technique to know its weakness, the fact that at the moment it is activated the user would enter a weakened state momentarily.

Seeing Castiel falling to the ground, the rest of the energy that he had drained away from the activation of this new power and his body failing on him faster and faster to the point that maintaining consciousness was a challenge in itself and survival was dubious, this image gave Kokabiel some sadistic joy.

"Foolish brat, if you hadn't gone ahead and used **Divine Protection** for them you would be capable of at least defend yourself. But again, this might as well be the supreme cosmic joke, the one that inherited the name of **Castiel** , **the Shield of God** , is a corrupted and weak being that will die by the hands of his betters, of someone who righteously received and deserved his power. Now you can go and DIE!" He said as he tried to swing his right hand, but Argetlan refused to attack.

It simply did not move and even started to shake and try to move by itself, trying to get out of Kokabiel's body. He did not deserve its powers, someone like him was not worth this item.

"Stop that!" Kokabiel said as he clutched Argetlan with his left hand, trying to hold it in place. "You are nothing but a tool, you exist to be a part of me, nothing more and nothing less."

"Wrong." He heard from his back as he felt a light TAP on Argetlan, blasting it away from Kokabiel's body. He felt it clearly, the feeling of his arm being ripped away from him while taking away a part of his power over light and the star with it.

Infuriated he turned around and tried to slap away the one who allowed that 'sword/arm' get away from him if it wasn't for the interference he would have managed to remove every vestige of consciousness that Argetlan seemed to have. Though he failed in his attack since the offender used her second sword to increase her own gravity, free falling fast enough to escape Kokabiel's attack.

Lugh saw that the arm/blade flew away and finally released a sigh of relief that she herself did not know she was holding. Her objective was completed, she had made sure to give her father's best creation to his truly intended owner, just as the two planned. Now all she had to do was catch Castiel and her father and get the hell away from here, the others would likely be fine as Kokabiel was now weakened enough for Bazet to take care of him. She ought to admit that making it so as to steal a big part of the power of light and heat from Kokabiel and transfer it to Argetlan was ingenious from her father, the only shame for her was that she would not get this new treasure.

As she ran by the use of her **sandals of Hermes** she was nothing more than a shadow to the naked eye, even Kokabiel could not properly follow her movements. Lugh saw the state her friend was, and could only clench her mouth in anger, he was one of the last few people out there who still gave her a chance even after knowing her, but here he was more dead than alive. The only things on him that seem complete and uninjured was his wings (she was not surprised since her father told her last night about what was the truth about Castiel, quite a tragic story if someone asks Lugh) and Argetlan, the rest was either charred, burned, broken, or a mix of the previous three.

When she caught up to him Kokabiel had had enough of this. He was going to end it all by releasing the most powerful light spear he could, even the town might be annihilated but he would not give a shit about it. He would at most need to scavenge to find Argetlan later on and reinstall it, and this time he would slowly but surely remove every last vestige of consciousness that this thing seemed to have.

As he readied his light spear something happened.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH A HAIR OF MY CHILD HEAD." A woman shouted from the skies as two lights came from two different directions. One was a woman riding a white pegasus, she had an eye cover and had her purple hair flying all around, she was one of the Tower executives and someone who considered Castiel close to a son, Rider.

But, the yell was NOT from her at all.

The one who yelled in such fashion was the other woman approaching at incredibly fast speeds while flapping her twelve white wings. She had long blond hair, white and smooth skin, blue eyes and an impressive chest. Her face could only be seen as a work of pure art, to the point that no artist could ever hope to capture her beauty completely, however, this face was twisted BEYOND recognition right now. Twisted in the most extreme rage this woman has EVER felt since the moment she was born.

She was Gabriel, the only female archangel, the second strongest being in heaven (arguably strongest if it is purely in direct combat), and the BIOLOGICAL MOTHER OF CASTIEL.

Kokabiel saw Gabriel approaching and gave her a sadistic smile, the thought of killing her son in front of her was too good to pass up.

However, it was not meant to be for him to manage to do anything he wanted there.

"Oh, don't mind me. I am just cleaning your mistak-"

And that was as far as he went before receiving one punch. One single punch that OBLITERATED most of Kokabiel's body. He never understood one thing until that moment when his body was forced to learn, the difference between himself in his 'apex' and Gabriel may have seemed small at the time, but it was in fact as distant as the difference between him and those in Mid-class or Low-class, the difference was just tha big between him in the lower end of the mid Super-class and someone like her who was on the high Leader-class. He only saw it as small because she rarely ever showed her actual power and when he fought he usually fought many weaker enemies instead of anyone truly stronger than him, let alone the fact that she activated the power that came from her name due to her desire to protect her son.

She was the 'power of God', and she was strong enough to deserve the said title.

"Don't you dare call yourself his mother." Rider said as she flew right past the beaten and barely breathing body of Kokabiel and flew straight at Gabriel.

As the two approached each other Rider changed her ride, Pegasus was tired from the travel and so she let him rest, she then decided to go with another one that would give her some degree of advantage against the ONE WOMAN she could NEVER forgive.

Now Rider was mounting a different being, a 'brown dog' with a white chest, a three-parts 'mask' that was golden above, silver in the center, and red on the sides. It had metal-like 'shackles' on its pawns, his tail looked like a flaming cloud, and strangely enough, he also had fire wings reminiscent of a true-phenix which it had some of its bloodline.

Its name was Entei, a legendary beast of fire that liked to live inside volcanos and was as strong as a high super-class beast, he was strong enough to fight a low leader-class with no problems and, with Rider's support, could equal even a high leader-class enemy. A true power-house.

As Rider mounted on Entei she used her Noble Phantasm Bellerophon to increase all status and powers of her mount. Launching herself at Gabriel, hatred in her eyes. Since that day long ago Gabriel became an enemy for Rider, one that she considers close to what she feels for Perseus, someone who killed her and even desecrated her corpse and used her head as a weapon for years to come (or, as she would call it, a successful Shinji).

As the two crossed paths an explosion happened in the field, the point of impact that as the crater made by Kokabiel and Castiel's attacks was further increased, reaching the point that it was now reaching the point of making a canyon transversing throughout Kuoh. The damage from one attack of the two was enough to break the barrier that the others were doing all they could to maintain. It was surprising that the barrier had held up until that point, those who managed to maintain the barrier proved their power and worth by making a barrier that held up even when Kokabiel attacked, but now it was simply beyond them.

The fight now was between leader-class beings, Gabriel, the Strength of God with a strength of high leader-class, and Rider with her Entei, two beings at least equal to between mid and high leader-class.

They started fighting at absurdly fast speeds, the two woman fighting for entirely different reasons. Rider was simply taken by her wrath, she simply could not handle herself whenever she was close to Gabriel as she truly and utterly hated the woman and she knew what her presence here meant, and it wasn't anything good in Rider's opinion, it was something unforgivable. Gabriel, on the other hand, wanted to finish this as quickly as possible. The vision of her only son in that wretched state was one that she simply could not take, consequences be damned.

However, the fight was short-lived. Not even twenty seconds after the start of the fight, one that allowed for those who could only see it to realize their distance to the true top and Kokabiel, who could not move a fiber from his body and probably would not survive for long if he doesn't receive very extensive medical care, was forced to see that even at his apex he still wouldn't be a match for either of those women, the fight ended abruptly. The reason being the several new people approaching, there was a total of six and all had at least low leader-class levels of power.

"Sister, what is going on? Is it something exciting?" The first one shouted. He had an extremely large build and his hair was golden red in color and was floating in such a way that it could be seen as flames. His name was **Uriel, the Flame of God** , an Archangel that was known for his brash and excited manner of acting.

"Sister, why are you fighting here? Shouldn't you be more focused on helping those in need instead?" Another one of those newcomers sad. He was the tallest of the men here, he had verdant green long hair with a voice and face that completely disarmed everyone around, someone that was born to help others and enjoyed nothing more than helping and healing those in need. His name was **Raphael, the Healing of God** , and another of the Archangels.

"No need to worry so much. Sister is fine so why did you wake me up?" A third voice with a very tired and sleepy sound said. He was a chubby small man with wild golden hair that looked completely bored at first glance but was staring intensely at Rider and Gabriel's fighting, like a predator waiting to attack if needed, but that wouldn't bother unless absolutely necessary. His name was **Ariel, the Lion of God** and another one of the archangels.

"Whatever, let's solve whatever is happening as fast as I do have to go watch a play on Broadway." A fourth voice said. He was a man that had long purple hair (he changed colors to be more in line with his aesthetics) and has a flower tattoo on his face and, strangely enough, was with a mirror in hand while admiring himself. His name was **Jophiel, the Beauty of God** and another one of the archangels.

"Let's wrap this up, I was trying to continue watching the creation of a new life between two super-models here. But big sis, why are you fighting here now? For what I saw you usually stay at home all depressed so why change now?" A fifth voice said with a bit of interest. He was a medium man with a head of dirty blond hair and VERY strange eyes, they looked like a kaleidoscope and there was only this and no sclera of iris or pupil. His name was **Chamuel, the Vision of God** , an archangel and someone that liked to see every type of relationship on earth and see all types of love blooming.

The last one did not say anything. He had an angelic and perfect proportional face with flowing long golden hair. His appearance was such that it could disarm anyone, seeing him Irina and Xenovia thought of God but knew that he wasn't him instinctively, but he was the closest thing possible to what God was like. He was **Michael, the One Who IS as God** , and he was NOT happy.

The reason? First, the Excalibur fragments were gone now and trying to remake them would be close to impossible; Second was that the truth about God's death was revealed to more people, something that should be avoided at all costs or it could affect God's system in unpredictable ways and in case a war happened while he tried to repair it, well the end of the heavens might happen (it did not help that most factions hated them so much, but then again they may have burned or converted most of their believers, you know, small stuff); Third was that his sister was fighting Rider, and he knew that this could lead to some unpleasant results since the Tower may be weaker than heaven by quite some degrees but attacking them was a TERRIBLE idea, especially since they were allied with some other Pantheons that just want that good excuse to go and destroy the Heavens; but the fourth one was BY FAR the most complex.

He had sensed a minute ago that someone had somehow connected to the power of one of his dead brothers, the power of the Shield of God Castiel, and was originally excited beyond words. Angels might have many advantages like the magic core and, in case of pure angels, enhanced healing powers from God's system and the blood that flows in their veins, a silverish blood that was capable of help healing them that much faster than normal as well as work s extra energy when needed as it was made of the energy of the world itsle which made their blood be all the more precious as it could work as extra defnse or attacking power depending of what an angel did (Writer's Note: those who are in doubt, this is somewhat similar to the power of Quyncies from bleach), however, there was also a BIG disadvantage for the angel race, they were limited. While an angel remains as a pure angel they were all limited to how far their powers could grow. For instance, if someone was made with a limit of being mid-class they would never reach high-class, and so on and so forth as, in the same class, there is hardly nyone who can match an angel). God had made it so because he thought it was for the better to not let the angels grow too much or they might try to attack other pantheons, an action that might lead to disaster. And so the number of archangels remained the same since the last great war, no new ones appeared for the last few centuries and it was bad news for heaven as it simply had too many enemies.

So, feeling that a new archangel or someone with the right potential appeared was a wonderful surprise for Michael, something worth celebrating. But, this is NOT what he expected. This was beyond complicated since he could see who it was that released said sign and he seemed to be half fallen, something that by all rights should not be possible. He did not know who this person was exactly, but something was certain for him, he needed to go and save this person as he was obviously too close to dying and as the leader of heaven and the archangels he had to protect his own, and in the end saving others was something that he ought to do as an angel of the lord.

"Brothers, let's go and help our sister." Michael said, and with this order, the other five archangels moved with him.

With this addition on the battlefield, Rider could only remain on the defensive. Facing all of them she could not do anything but protect herself, and in a moment that she was under heavy bombardment of those new additions Gabriel managed to slip by Rider's grasp and reach the battered body of Castiel. Said boy could not perceive her or anyone else, he was too close to collapsing completely but remained awake just enough to keep the barrier up. He was in such conditions that he did not even know what was going on, he just wanted to protect those he should protect until the very end and beyond that if possible. And as such the golden cubes continued in place stopping anything to happening to them or them getting out as well, the only exception would be Kuroko but she could not use her sacred gear yet as she simply was too mentally taxed by her first use of balance breaker.

Seeing the state her son was Gabriel could only shed a river of tears as she carefully caught him trying her best to not hurt him further. She then took flight with him on her arms, ignoring the shouts from Rider who was desperately trying to follow Gabriel but could not do it due to the interference of so many archangels.

After Gabriel left back to heaven Michael acted by releasing one of the techniques that the archangels learned in recent years, it was one made for restraining and was based in what they could decipher of the magic abilities of the original Castiel.

" **ARK!** " and with that a light dome surrounded Rider, it was not enough to restrain her for long but the few seconds it did was plenty enough for the archangels to leave this battlefield, because if they remained here much longer they would suffer since they felt the power of a few entities approaching. The Japanese Pantheon would not let them create havoc in their country after all.

After they left a white shadow flew by, taking away Kokabiel and leaving before the monstrous form of Rider could have her way with him, and even if it would be an interesting show for Vali to watch he had seen enough for one night.

And thus the battle ended, and the absolute losers, in the end, were the devils and the Tower. They lost against Kokabiel, they lost against the archangels, the Excalibur fragments were lost, and the worst part is that they lost Castiel.

It was a complete defeat.


	78. Chapter 72

**Part three of three of the special**

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

The heavens, a separate dimension in and of itself was divided into seven levels. The first was the home for the lower level angels and most of the defense mechanisms are. The second being the place where they can watch the stars, train, and lock away those angels who have sinned but did not fall. The third was the place where the souls of the departed resided, by far the largest space and is large enough that even an entire galaxy could be there and it would still have space to spare. The fourth is the garden of Eden, the final vision of paradise where there is an absolute abundance of everything and where the three of life and the three of wisdom resides. The fifth is the research department, a place that is always trying to develop the best items and ways to heal others, there is also where the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the accumulated knowledge of all types of heretic and normal magic and grimoires of forbidden spells, resides. The sixth is the place where the seven archangels resides, it can be considered the smallest of the levels of heaven but also the one with the most extreme levels of holy energy, it was to the point that there was a constant mist of holy energy and even a pool where said energy was transformed into liquid, one drop is enough to invigorate and fully restore to power any mid-class angel and even elevate a human affinity with holy energy (humans originally shouldn't possess much connection with it and just by using this waters it was possible to give said humans the ability to manipulate a bit of holy and light element). The seventh level is where God's system lays, it is also the home for the still unused sacred gears and heavens armory where the archangels personal armors resided too, armors that were used as the bases for the creation of the **boosted gea** r and **divine dividing balance breakers**.

As well as the thirteen thrones of heaven where the biggest power of heaven was concentrated, the thriteen thrones of the twelve archangels and the biggest one for the almighty God.

And now, in this normally pacific and solemn (even a bit depressing on this last few years) place the normally united archangels were about to discuss what happened.

* * *

As soon as they got in heaven the archangels surrounded Gabriel who was desperately trying to transfer energy to the hurt boy whose life was hanging by a thread. Most of them did not notice earlier that his wings indicated his status as half fallen, as someone that should not be possible to exist in this world, but when they saw it they took a deep breath.

It was inconceivable, it should not be possible for someone to be half fallen and half pure angel. It was supposed to be one or the other, it has always been like this, and the fact that those dark wings were releasing a energy that creeped them out was not helping the case. It was like those dark wings were the embodiment of the purest and absolute darkness and evil, in antithesis with his now white wings that continued to release a holy and light aura that was of such purity that could even rival them in this aspect alone.

They wanted to ask Gabriel what was happening, what is going on and how the FUCK did she got herself a son, they got a nephew, and never knew anything about. How did this happen? But, as soon as they saw Gabriel tears that continued to flow with audible sobs and an aura of sadness and remorse so thick that it would be necessary a chainsaw just to cut it, well those questions came in second thought entirely.

It was especially so for Raphael, he was someone who hated to see the pain in others and his sister state and the condition of his nephew(?) was enough to prompt him to action.

"Bring me to my room urgently." Raphael said, already going straight to there. He had some medical items there that would be necessary if they wanted a chance of saving this boy.

Gabriel moved right behind Raphael but taking absolute care to not tremble or do anything that might her Castiel. Considering that the only big signs of life he released was the slight raising of his chest cavity (that looked like minced meat that was cooked beyond the point at this moment) and pained grunts every once in a while, and especially so when she moved him in any way, it was clear that he could probably die at any moment.

As she entered the room she saw that it was as full of life as ever, the smell of medicine and plants was everywhere and there were plenty of plants that could probably pass up as unique and life-saving treasures if brought outside. Gabriel put Castiel on the 'bed' there, if by 'bed' you can accept a giant flower petal that constantly released a sacred and soothing aura. It was a unique plant that used to work as the bed of Adam and Eve, it was a flower known as 'Flower of Rebirth' as it could guaranty that whoever lays on it would never die and there would be a chance or healing no matter how terrifying the conditions of said person were.

As she put him on the 'bed' she released a small sigh of relief, she traced his face with her finger and even in this state he was, even if he looked terrifyingly ugly right now, she still was filled with endless amounts of maternal love for him. At that moment Raphael appeared by her side and asked her to leave, he had a LOT of work to do and if he wanted to have a chance of healing the boy he would have to start now.

When Gabriel left the room it was clear that she continued looking back every once in a while, longing and concern clear in her eyes.

"Sis, what exactly is going on? Who is that twerp?" Uriel asked, clearly not noticing the absentmindedness of his sister. As she did not answer he was about to ask again when.

HEAD SLAP

Someone gave him a slap on the back of his head.

"What gives? Why are you slapping my head brother?" Uriel asked turning to his brother.

"Don't you see that she is not on the right state of mind? Are you this tactless? There is NO beauty in that." Jophiel asked in a rhetorical fashion, on which Uriel could only scratch his head and continue in silence.

"Well, if we are going to do nothing I will go to sleep. Ask one of those new girls to come here to wake me up when it is time to talk so I may try to wake up, but please take your time as I do think a five to six days nap to be the very least to recover from how tired I am." Ariel said, turning his back and going back to his room. He was someone that was a mystery, how could someone so decisively lazy still be a pure angel?

The others then remained quiet, the only exception being Michael who approached Ariel's home to talk to the one of the other 2 beings that could reside in this place. It was a failed experiment in trying to create more angels, the technology for this being helped by the Tower when they were still allies.

Considering how in the end the result could not be considered a true angel it was decided to leave this project alone and return the focus to what they were trying to do for the last few centuries, the brave saints project. All the heavens needed now was some last few key data from the devils and their evil pieces and the brave saints would be done and ready.

But going back to the point the failed project was about to be disposed of when Gabriel took pity on her and took the resulting being with her to live in the sixth heaven. Michael decided to talk to her for one reason, making sure that information about what happened would remain a secret.

"Hello, I hope I am not disturbing you Jibril." Michael said to the girl.

"No problems, master. It is always a pleasure meeting you." Jibril said giving a polite bow. "I was just reading a book just now but it wasn't a particularly great one. At least compared to that." She said pointing to Raphael's room, and extremely excited face and voice when she continued. "What is he? How is it possible for him to exist? What is he like? Does he have a name? What does he eat? Is he capable of communication? Can we keep him? Does he count as a new race? If so is he capable of breeding? Are there more? So many unknowns!" Jibril said as a bit of droll was escaping her mouth.

She was an odd case, no other way of putting it. She had an appearance that would make most supermodels drop in shame with her perfect figure, she has long purple-pink hair that reaches down to her knees and two white wings protruding near her hips. Her pupils are purple surrounded by a gold iris but a cross shape appears in her pupils when she is focusing on a task (such as performing a spell). Her ears are wing-shaped and she also has a halo over her head. She usually has her midriff exposed and wears a long skirt. She has also a slim and well-endowed body that could enchant most males instantly upon seeing her, but she could ruin it all with how overly excited with an opportunity of getting new information, she simply lost all charm sometimes and acted resembling a old pervert or a simple nutjob. A disappointing beauty in that sort of way.

"Calm down, Jibril-san. Everything will be explained later on. I just wanted to ask of you to not divulge what you have seen here as it is an extremely delicate matter." Michael said.

Jibril noded but could not help but tilt her head as she asked.

"But, can you at least tell me who he is?" Jibril asked.

"Well, all I know is that he apparently is Gabriel's son." Michael said, receiving as an answer to his last statement a jump and excitement from Jibril who started asking questions even more quickly and excitedly than before.

If before she was curious because of what he is now she is because of WHO he is. For Jibril Gabriel was her savior and discovering that she had a son was quite a lot for this young woman.

After the talks with the two were over Michael went back to see if his sister had calmed down enough, yet considering how she was walking from one side to another while mumbling something and did not notice even the tries of Uriel to talk to her, Michael realized that he would have to wait for a time when news about Castiel condition arrived.

* * *

After three whole days, Raphael left his room. He looked quite a bit tired and was showing an extremely serious face.

"Brother, is he ok? Please tell me my son is fine." Gabriel said as she nearly teleported to in front of him and caught his shoulders with such strength that it was clear that she was not controlling herself at all.

If in any other situation the strength she is putting in her hands would be considered enough to be called an attack, she used to pulverize diamonds and bend titanium whenever she was bored while younger and her strength did not stop growing until this day, so you can imagine how Raphael is feeling right now. But, he did not show any signs of discomfort or protest as he knew what she is probably going through right now and this was far from the first time someone grabbed him this way when asking for the wellbeing of their family or loved ones.

"First of, he is no longer in any danger." Gabriel relaxed her hands a bit when she heard that, it went from pulverizing diamonds to just cracking them... Progress. "I managed to recuperate most of the damage done to his organs and vitals, I also healed his soul until where was possible and am now recovering his skin and other aspects. There are three main problems: first, recuperating his right hand is now fully impossible, the holy object there seems to have fully and completely fused with the body and soul to the point that removing it is impossible; second his left eye is completely lost, he will need a replacement if he wants to see normally again, Chamuel can take care of that as he probably can work something right; and third and most important, his magic circuits are, for the lack of better words, wrong. But don't worry, excluding those three aspects he will be fine after around four more days of rest there in my room"

Hearing this Gabriel was relieved. Knowing that he would be mostly alright was more relief than most could ever imagine.

"I got to ask, why did you say that his magic circuits are wrong Raphael-sama? Is it because of he being half fallen?" Jibril asked as she had also come along when she saw that Raphael left the room and her curiosity was on an all times high.

"I can't say, Jibril-san. While I was analyzing and healing him I took special care to understand those. They don't make sense, no matter how someone sees it as someone that has the potential to be one of the archangels should have the most excellent magic circuits possible. I imagine that he should have been born like you Jibril, with all magic circuits approaching or even being of the blue blood noble magic circuits. Perhaps even being possible to evolve into the Rainbow class magic circuits, the same as us. But, they can only be said to be wrong. I mean, I spent most of the time there trying to recover him back to what he should be but the progress was small, just reaching what normal humans are instead of what it should be like. Heck, even his magic core seems like it barely started to activate, which should be fully operational since birth as well, especially considering that as someone who had the potential to reach Leader-class regardless of training he should have been born at least with mid of high Ultimate-class in power but he seems to have onyl reached his bare minimum from where he should have started now." Raphael explained, frustration on his face. He was frustrated because there were clear signs that the damage was not something small, and especially frustrated and mad in simply imagining the pain said boy that should have been filled with talent must have suffered by having his circuits, part of his very soul, damaged and weakened so much.

Raphael was someone that hated to even imagine others feeling suffering of any kind, he longed to help to heal and save others. It might be because of that desire and drive that he was such good friends with Shiro Emyia.

Hearing this Jibril wanted nothing more than going inside and start analyzing him herself, she was just that interested in this new specimen that defiled so many things that should be common sense.

The others showed surprise. They might be far from as knowledgeable about the subject as Raphael but they understood their own bodies well, the physiology of an archangel was special after all. All of them had been created with perfect Rainbow class magic circuits, the highest grade magic core, and the innate ability to control the power over their name, but Castiel had terrible magic circuits and his magic core was mostly unworking too.

It was like he was systematically weakened since birth like he was but part of what he should be like.

And hearing that Gabriel returned being the crying mess that she was not long ago, but this time the tears were less of desperation and much more out of regret and sadness.

"it is my fault. I did this, I am responsible." Gabriel said very quietly, yet considering how everyone was paying attention to her it was only natural that they heard her loud and clear.

Raphael turned to her and asked.

"What did you do? How did you manage to damage him in such a way sister?" The agitation and a bit of anger in his voice were clear to hear.

"Calm down brother, I am sure it is nothing that ba-" Michael was saying, trying to be the peacemaker that he usually was, but was interrupted by Raphael who snapped at him.

"Don't you tell me to calm down. You haven't seen the state his soul is like, how damaged he is right now. And no, I am not talking just about the damage from the fight against that big headed brother of ours but from all the small damages done across the years. For him to even activate his magic circuits, something that should be innate to any angel, not to mention someone that would reach our level eventually, must have been worse than dying. There are damages and wounds inside every single one of his magic circuits, that he is even functioning as a living being instead of just dropping dead long ago is a miracle in and of itself. SO DON'T YOU TELL ME TO STAY CALM AND SAY NOTHING TO GABRIEL IF SHE REALLY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT!" That last bit was a yell so loud that even the mist made of excessive light element surrounding them was dispersed.

Hearing this Gabriel straightened herself up and cleaned her face of any signs of tears, even if her eyes being puffed and red was a dead give away. She knew she had to explain what was going on and what happened back then.

"I will talk, but first we should go and fetch brother Ariel." Gabriel said in a resigned tone.

"I will go fetch him, Master." Jibril said while opening her two wings so as to move faster to go back and hear the sad story. She was very curious about it, especially since from those nineteen years that she knew Gabriel she was always someone absurdly protective of those she cared about and hurting her own son seemed to like the number one thing she would not do.

After Jibril came back with an Ariel that may or may not be floating in a giant pillow, Gabriel started to tell her story.

"As you guys know around thirty years ago we had our first contact with the people that would one day create the Tohsaka Tower. It was a big unknown for everyone as suddenly seven fighters with the power to rival us came out of nowhere. We decided to establish contact, we had to know them better and to discover if they were enemies or allies, and so it was decided that I should go. It was then that I met him, the man that I came to love and the only one I probably ever will. Shiro Emiya, the sword incarnate and the most wonderful men I could ever hope to meet. My Hero of Justice.

"We started talking, and before long we started trying to talk with each other more and more, and more, and more, until I simply not being capable of spending more than a day without hearing his voice.

"It was the happiest days of my many thousands of years of life. We loved each other and enjoyed being close to each other more than anything else, even as other woman were around him it did not bother me as all I wanted was to be close to my hero, I gave everything I had to him and he gave me more love than I ever expected to be possible to receive. And the happiness I felt only grew that much better when I discovered that I had received the greatest gift father could ever allow me to have, one that I never thought possible for me.

"I was pregnant. Can you imagine brothers? Me, someone that has her hands stained in the blood of so many dozens of thousands of enemies, discovering that I too can bring life to this world. That I am bringing the same type of light God could make, to bring beings to life instead of just being someone who delivered punishment. That I could bring something so pure to the world, was more than I ever had dared to dream off.

"But, I also knew one thing. I had to hide it, fear that our enemies might try to attack me, or even attack heaven itself for fear of the mere chance that we grow any stronger, the mere chance of this happening, or even worse that someone aims to kill my baby when he was born. It was simply too much. And so the only ones I let know of my situation were the people from the Tower since they were around when I discovered it and hiding from them was impossible. I used some basic illusions to hide my belly growing, but even then it was the most perfect nine months. I remember reading for him, to caress my belly and talk to him about everything and anything.

"And then he was born. When I first saw him, he was simply so beautiful, so innocent and pure that I could not believe that he came out of me. And when I held him and was about to name him I felt the System taking place, granting him the name and the innate powers from our dead brother Castiel as he instantly reached the mid Ultimate-class.

"However, it was then that his tiny little wings opened. When I saw the white and black wings, I, I did not know what to do. Different thoughts traveled my mind, the repercussions of he being what he was were simply too big. I feared, feared for the Heavens and for him. And if the fallen found out of his existence and tried to take him away, or if some angel or exorcist attacked him to 'cleanse heaven', or if he was captured for experiments, or if the devils feared the fact that we were giving birth to new archangels and decided to attack, or the other Pantheons decided to act against us just because.

"I knew that he might become the spark that would ignite a new great war. It was a risk the I could not accept, neither for heavens or for him as I feared what might have happened to him above all else. Alfe of fear, of always having a target on his back due to simply being born different, especially as I realized that what was making him have his dark energy was some fragments of the corrupted grail that was originally inside Shiro and later on passed down to Castiel, and it was already completely fused as one with his soul making it be as one and impossible to remove. I even feared how the angels would react to him as he not only carried the power of an archangel but also a fragment of the power of the god **Angra Mainyuu, the All The World's Evil**. And so, I asked to be left alone with my son. The others congratulated me, complementing the baby over and over and showed happy faces all around. However, after I did what had to be done I was chased away and barely survived and if it wasn't for Shiro stopping them I would have died.

"B-but I deserved worse. I- I hurt my baby, even if it was to protect him later on, but I still hurt him so much. I sealed his wings and angelic powers, put a seal on his soul using the power of my name to strengthen the seal further. It was too much for him, he cried over and over but thanks to the barrier I put around us no one listened to his cries of pain. I could see his suffering, the pain I was causing him, but I did not stop.

"That is why the Tower hates us now, why Castiel has such damages to his soul, and why I did what I did." Gabriel said, and despite trying her very best to maintain a straight face she could not help but cry in the end.

This time, however, no one went to console her. They all were quiet, not a sound or emotion in any of their faces. But, this was only temporary.

"YOU STUPID SIS, WHY DID YOU DO THIS?" Uriel yelled, flames being released all around him as he stood up. "Do you think we are so weak that we could not protect heaven or our own nephew? Fuck, why did you decide to do something this moronic? Why should any of us care about something as insignificant as an evil god, if push comes to shove I'd kill whoever tried to touch my nephew anyway!" The flames all around him increasing in intensity. He has always been big on the family part, he was someone made to burn anything that threatens his family so hearing what Gabriel did was like saying that he was not enough.

And THAT little tidbit was too much for him.

"This is the least beautiful side I have ever seen of you, sister. You should trust us more." Jophiel said, moving his hand to take a strand of hair out of his face.

The other four agreed with what was said. They knew that what Gabriel did was not wrong on an intellectual level, but they were no machines and neither was then full of hormones for the first time in thousands of years.

Micheal was the one who decided to talk next.

"So, what exactly are we to do next?"

"How about returning my disciple to me?" A new voice said from behind them.

The reaction was instantaneous, the archangels turned around and readied their attacks ready to face a tough opponent. It was basically impossible to reach this place for anyone else, especially reaching it without activating any form of alarm, so that this invader could do it was an indication of his ability on stealth. The invader was a tall man, he had long light purple in a ponytail, he wears a traditional light purple umanori hakama and kimono, light purple tabi and black geta with purple haori and tekkou and carries his absurdly long sword on his back.

"What are you doing here, Assassin?"

Assassin gave a shrug and said.

"It is simple really, I am but a messenger. Either Castiel comes back to where he belongs or THIS IS WAR, you choose as for me both are just fine."

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Wow, that was difficult. I mean REALLY difficult to write.**

 **I guess this was very out of nowhere, but clues were here and there throughout the story if you pay enough attention. The biggest give away was how after Castiel was born the Heaven and the Tower lost their association and went from allies to enemies and how Kokabiel was acting towards Castiel.**

 **Castiel is a unique case altogether, as someone who was born as a future archangel he would, if nothing had happened, already be high Super-class and fast approaching Leader-class, and as someone who was born with pieces of not only a ritual object with nearly unlimited amounts of energy and a part of an evil God that could destroy the world by its very presence, his powers would already be Leader-class by now even if he did not train if he had not been sealed.**

 **Gabriel acted in a bad way, but understandable. She was created to help protect and execute the law of Heavem, someone like Castiel could create disaster just by existing as it is a 'wrong' existence and someone who could make Heaven's enemies attack them. But, at the same time, as a mother she could never allow her son to die or be killed. These conflicting thoughts led her to make this decision, for as wrong as it may be.**

 **Now, in case it wasn't clear yet, Castiel is not only on mid Ultimate-class (something he should have been since the day he was born) but also has Argetlan as his new right arm. Not only that but part of the power of Kokabiel's name is now for Castiel to use as he sees fit, something that Valper Galilei planned from the very start as someone who saw Shiro as an incarnation of what his dreams meant and someone who was as close to a true living embodiment of God that there could ever be (or, in other words, a super fanboy). He wanted to obtain the information and take away Kokabiel's chance of restarting the war while also screwing him over by taking away most of his powers, that he could give Argetlan to Castiel was just a happy coincidence as he could just as well have changed Argetlan into a typical blade or storing it away.**

 **Also, in case there is doubt yet, the one who was ordering Kokabiel earlier to make the ritual there and took advantage of it for his organiation's purposes, was Vanila Ice. He is based on a character from Jojo part 3, one of my favorites animes from all times.**

 **Anyway, I am leaving now and I have no idea when I will be able to post again, but I hope to see you all in good health and I hope that not that many will dislike my story now.**

 **Thanks for reading until now, review, favorite, and follow.**


	79. Chapter 73

3° Person P.O.V.

It has been a while since news of what happened arrived in the Tower. When it got there the Tower recalled all their operatives across the globe, thankfully they had already managed to stop the destruction those vampires from the Tepes faction were creating in Europe so it wasn't much of a problem anymore.

Apparently, now that the vampires had somehow managed to get rid of their weakness against light and also got a stronger body and some help in the form of more evolved werewolves they decided that they were the nobility of the world and went out causing trouble everywhere. As the Tower had connections with some other magic groups and two different Pantheons and a race that resided in Europe they could not simply ignore the situation.

But back to what was important, after they had got the information about what happened a meeting was declared among all the top members of the Tower. It was so serious that even after Luvia and Rin saw each other no fight broke out, and this was never a good sign.

As everyone sat on a large round table the first one to speak was Rin.

"Like everyone here is well aware the situation we are in is far from ideal. In case any of you don't know what exactly happened we will now release a video about everything that happened, please remain calm until the end of the video." Her voice was totally neutral as she said that, but the way she could not hold the cup of coffee in her hand without spilling some was a clear indication of how nervous she actually was.

The others made silent agreements and the video started. It showed all the fight between Kokabiel and the others, courtesy of Franky who's giant robot had cameras installed all over. As they saw the fighting continuing they saw how the young ones fought desperately, how Yuno and Kuroko achieved balance breaker (a point that made their respective fathers proud, especially Lancer who had stood up and clapped like crazy while shouting 'that is my little girl!', needles to say that he doted on her quite a lot in his own way), they then saw how things took a turn for the worse after the ritual was complete.

They saw how Kokabiel was going to kill Castiel and the others but was stopped thanks to Kuroko's intervention. And then they saw the fight between Castiel and Kokabiel, how the young men fought with everything he got and how he was trashed in the end. especially shocking was when they saw the state he was after Kokabiel's attack using his name. To say that the bloodlust being released was enough to scare a God of war would be no overstatement, but things turn a turn a small turn for the better when Castiel opened his four wings.

However, the slightly improved mood took a skydive when they saw Gabriel and the subsequent kidnapping of Castiel. Not only that but the fact that Kokabiel was taken away safely by Vali was another thing that they took notice, whispers of removing the Divine Dividing and break his soul in the process were being said by more than one person.

"So? What are your opinions?" Rin asked, still trying to maintain a neutral tone of voice but the anger in there was showing more and more.

"It is a declaration of war, Rin." Saber said showing the same face of the perfect king she had while she led Camelot. She was doing subconsciously because she did not want to show her emotions right now, emotions that could be described as bloody murder. She, like Rider and the other woman that were in a relationship with Shiro, considered Castiel like a son that they never had. And seeing him suffering like that, hurt like that, and then taken away by Gabriel after what she did to him when he was a baby, well it was simply too much.

Rider agreed with it, and so did Luvia and Sakura, even if the last one did not move at all and simply continued to stare blankly at the screen, yet if you consider the dark, muddy, and pure evil aura that was being released by her it became clear that she was NOT okay at all.

Kuroka was there too, as well as Biko that barged in when he heard what happened. As the two watched what happened it was clear that they were just about to flip the table and go straight to deliver some well-deserved punishment to those who did that to their friend. Biko was especially mad, he considered Castiel as a brother and he would NEVER accept seeing his brother going through all that and do nothing about it. Fuck, he is a descendant of Sun Wukong, the great sage equaling the Heavens, someone who once rebelled against the Heavens and fought all the archangels there alone and live to tell the tale, and if his ancestor could do it Biko sure as hell would do just as much.

Franky was fuming with rage. He was THERE, and due to his machines malfunctioning due to the increase of the gravity, he failed in to protect someone he considered like a little brother. As soon as he came back he already started preparing the most powerful armaments that he could possibly find and distribute them to all the Sisters, the 20 thousand that were all equipped in such a way that most high-class angels would have to run away from any single one of them, and the fact that they had perfect coordination made them multiple times more deadly.

Illya was, well.

"Sela, Liz, go and call Berserker. We have to go save my nephew from the evil clutches of that wrench, and then go to Grigory and kill that bastard that hurt him, and kill everything in our path."

"But, Illya-sama wouldn't that be too risky with only us four?" Sela asked with worry since she knew that neither the Heavens or the Grigory were to be trifled with.

"Don't worry Sela, Berserker will not lose, he is the strongest!" Illya said full of confidence.

Meanwhile, Souichiru was removing his glasses, an action that was well noticed by his dear wife Caster.

"Souichiru-sama, where are you going?" Caster asked, even though she could imagine perfectly where it was.

"I heard that a father should make sure of his daughter's happiness, young Castiel is someone that brings her joy so I will go fetch him. I also understand that a father would never let someone hurt his baby girl, so I will follow it up by going to Grigory and showing why I am among the best assassins/murder machines of this world." Souichiru said in a perfectly neutral way.

Caster shook her head to what her husband said, much to his confusion.

"Is something wrong Caster?" Soichiro asked.

She gave him a bright smile as she said.

"Of course there is, it isn't the responsibility of the father to do all of this." And the bright smile quickly turned into one of a predator as she said. "It is the responsibility of the TWO parents dear, never forget that."

He noded with a still very much expressionless face.

The others in the table felt the arctic cold killing intent the two were releasing and even Lancer took a step back. The couple might not be the strongest there, but they sure are the most terrifying.

Lancer, after taking a step back from the murder-happy couple (a couple that showed that craziness and excessive love IS hereditary), turned to Rin and said.

"So? When do we depart? It has been far too long since my last true war, and this will be fun!"

Rin turned to him and the others and said.

"I think we should try diplomacy first."

THAT raised more than a few eyebrows, especially considering that this was Rin we are talking about. The same Rin that almost declared war to Lucifer when he refused to make a public apology and punish his peerage for their transgressions, a woman that would not lose to anyone when it comes to how much she cared for Cas, her disciple and someone that she 'secretly' considered her own son. The pain and excessive training she put him through was just to make sure that he would live longer than Shiro, to 'try and make him unkillable', as she herself once said.

"Nee-san, give us one good reason." Sakura said with poison in her voice. She had just recuperated after seeing what happened and the words that Rin said were among the last ones she wanted to hear right now.

The one to answer that was Luvia, she and Rin talked earlier and were on this together.

"The reason is simple. Because we already have another enemy right now and this one will not be easy at all. We will need all our strength if we want to take care of them."

"And who would this enemy be?" Rider said, talking for the first time since she got back to the Tower.

"It is a terrorist group called Qlippoth, we don't know virtually nothing about them except for a few of their current top operatives. And they are led by Ryzevin Livan Lucifer, the son of the original Lucifer and one of the three supreme devils, those who can rival a high-ranking God." Luvia said. "And from out information, this organization was the responsible for killing Shiro."

And with that, the tension went through the roof. It was a well-known fact that practically everyone here liked the man, they were enemies originally but friendship and love, in some cases, happened. The way he died was beyond suspicious, they would never accept that he died fighting one single devil, just that coward that to this day don't dare show his face would never be enough to kill Shiro.

"How strong are we talking about Rin?" Saber asked with steel on her tone.

"At least him and nine more that are of mid leader-class at least with most being higher, there is the possibility of there being more as well as we only know a few of their top operatives. We know the name of only a few of them and those we know about are more than troublesome for us."Rin answered. "Among those nine there are: the most wanted stray devil in history, the one who destroyed the entire clan he was serving just because they got on the way of his pass-time of killing woman and leaving only a hand complete, Yoshikage Kira; The oldest brother of the current fairy queen, he is known as the red hound of the fairies and someone capable of turning his entire body into magma at will, Akainu; A demon who had once fought on equal terms the Heavenly Dragon Draig in a physical combat while also killing a few pars of Red Dragon Emperor and White Dragon Emperors on their maximum just for the fun of it all, the demon Galan; the last one that we know about is a witch that almost completely destroyed Grauzauberer, the magic school of Mephistopheles and almost killed Mephistoteles himself if it wasn't for the dragon king Tanin, the witch Medusa. And these are only the ones we know about, there are at least 6 more of them."

The mood took a more solemn turn. It was a well-known fact that any of them by themselves were dangerous enough that even one of the servants would not necessarily win in a one on one battle, if what Rin said was the truth then the really couldn't afford to start a war right now. Any war spends many resources and would leave them in a weakened state even if momentarily and if this organization was aiming at them it might even mean the end of the Tower and the death of all.

"But, that doesn't mean we will leave the Heaven fo what it wants too. We will send a representative to make our terms known, id they agree to hand him over that will be that, and if they refuse or were to hurt him in any way we will call for our allies and wage war. I am sure that at least a few of them wouldn't mind doing it at all, hohoho." Luvia said haughtily.

The others agreed as well. They may not be capable of waging a war that easily, but it wouldn't be a problem to do that if they were together with their allies. Heck, they were quite sure that at least the Phoenix clan (they did make a lot of friendship promises and swore to be the Tower's shield if the time comes where it is necessary), the Greek Pantheon, the Norse Pantheon (this two were allies for the Tower for a long time and they both loved to fight and had a bone to pick with the Heaven, even if not a grudge as absolute as the one from the Hindu Pantheon), and probably the Japanese Pantheon too (Castiel is to become in-laws with them and the archangels invaded Japanese land without authorization, plenty of reason enough for an intervention of their part), would not mind to wage war against heaven if beside the others, especially if they had justifiable reasons to do such.

"Okay, I got what you mean." Lancer said. "Back in the days we sometimes had to do something like that too and I agree with your decision. But I got to ask, how did you discover this?"

"It was Galilei. Apparently, he never accepted what happened to Shiro being because of just the Old Satan faction from what he told us and so he decided to investigate by himself. He entered and helped multiple terrorist groups to get this info and was the one responsible for the ritual that started it all." Luvia answered. "He apologized for doing what he did but he also gave us a list of many safe houses of terrorist's organizations, their power, and internal details that will be invaluable for us in eliminating them since none of them are good for the Tower in any way. Also, according to himself, he never planned to truly leave Kokabiel with that new weapon, he made several plans to make sure that Argetlan would not fully fall on Kokabiel's hands, mainly he planned to force it to explode when Kokabie used it, but when he saw Castiel without a right arm he changed plans to give said weapon to Castiel. Originally he wanted only for Kokabiel to bring Castiel alive and as well as possible before he explained the situation, but when he saw the condition of Castiel he could only keep apologizing and begging forgiveness for us because of what he did. Lugh also apologized and both are being detained inside his old lab until further notice, it is decided that Valper will continue working there until we claim it is enough and Lugh will remain there until someone that can control her to not doing her own thing takes a step forward."

"Hoh, an interesting plan that old man had. He betrayed us, to betray the other side, to come back to us as well." Caster said, a smirk on her face. "I like it." Again, Caster IS known as the witch of betrayal, and the plan she just heard is just about her alley.

After that, there were some discussions about who should be sent as a messenger, and the one chosen was Assassin. Partly because he could reach the archangels with no problem without alarming other angels and thus pressure the archangels in doing what was requested, but mostly because the others were more likely to provoke the archangels to a fight or attack outright depending on the situation.

* * *

Back to the present

Assassin was facing the seven archangels, a confident smile on his face and his sword on his back ready to be drawn if necessary.

The archangels were not pleased with this, this place was their sanctuary and to have someone so easily invade and enter it was NOT something they liked to see. But of course, this was not what was passing through the heads of all of them. No sir, to one of them the only thing she heard was that Assassin came here to take away her baby boy.

"Never, I will not let you take away my child." Gabriel said while jumping and attacking Assassin with a speed that would make teleportation seem slow in comparison.

However.

"Please don't attack the messenger." Assassin said while already standing behind the archangel. In less than a split second, he managed to move around an attacking Gabriel without anyone realizing his movement due to sheer speed and body control. A spectacular move that put even more pressure on the archangels as they realized that while this man did not have large energy reserves he more than makes up for it by using technique and his body and sword. An enemy that would request for the use of their sacred foundation armors.

"GABRIEL!" Michael yelled at his sister making her stop. "Calm down, you are not like this. You should remain calm and let we talk things through." As she heard her brother words Gabriel calmed down somewhat, but it was clear that she was still ready to react in an extremely violent fashion if anyone dared to touch her son in a way akin to a lioness protecting her cub.

As Gabriel returned to her more calm state the others relaxed somewhat because if she was to truly begin to rampage now there would be close to no way to stop her as she is just that powerful.

CLAP CLAP

"Good work, it almost made me believe that you ever cared for him on your heart, if you even have one." Assassin said full of sarcasm, again THIS was the best option as diplomat right now. THIS! "Now, will you be giving him to me now or you would rather we start fighting for him right now? I personally would prefer the latter since I always wondered how strong an archangel is and if their entrails are golden or silver." Again, THE best option.

Raphael was the one to take a step forward as he said.

"Please calm down and let's talk like adults, shaw we? First, we do not desire war or battle with you or the Tower in any way. I and the others never knew what Gabriel did, we were completely clueless about it, but we do not regret bringing young Castiel here. His state was critical and we brought him here and already gave him the best treatment possible, he is now resting and we were discussing what we should do with him. He is, after all, someone that will eventually become an archangel, one of us, but the fact that he is half fallen is not something that can be taken lightly."

Assassin narrowed his eyes and said.

"He already has no connection to the heavens, it was cut by that woman right there the moment he was born. And about the fact that he is half fallen we already know the reason behind it and it was something that was not under his own control." Assassin said.

With that, the others showed curiosity, but the one to speak was not any of the archangels.

"What is it? An unknown factor that can make someone to be born an impossibility, what is it? Tell me, tell me, tell me." Jibril asked in a quick fashion, overwhelming Assassin to say the truth.

"Apparently when Shiro destroyed the corrupted holy grail some fragments of the corruption entered his body, it was nothing too big at first but it tried to consume him and failed due to Avalon. But Avalon was not enough to destroy said fragments but it was enough to try and purge it from Shiro's body. Thus, whenever he tried to impregnate someone the fragments tried to transfer themselves to a new host, but it failed in all cases due to its toxic nature, the only one to survive this was young Castiel as he not only survived but also fused and took for himself the power even if most is inactive. It probably was due to him being a half angel and being inside someone with one of the purest light and good affinity in this world. We discovered that when we analyzed him while he was a baby, traces of the evil and cursed energy of Angra Mainyuu is not exactly something we would see in a baby otherwise. Thankfully Zelretch, old troll bastard that he is, confirmed that the pieces of the corrupted grail inside Castiel amount to no more than 15% and the consciousness of Angra Mainyuu is absent as it went somewhere else that we do not know yet, all we know is that Castiel has only a part of the power and none of the influence of that tainted being that should never have been born." Assassin said, much to the shock of those who heard him.

For Castiel to even survive could only be said to be a miracle, so much so that it wouldn't be strange if God had something to do with this (which is actually possible since the system he left behind did give Castiel his name and a purer holy energy).

Assassin then continued.

"Do you understand now? Castiel carries part of the energy of the source of 'all the world's evil', he isn't a pure archangel like you people. He is also not a fallen angel OR the reincarnation of someone else, he is himself, the one that we choose to be the heir to the Tower and the disciple of many people including myself."

That was not quite what they wanted to hear, but Michael heard it all and after a few seconds of silent contemplation he said.

"I have an idea that could work for everyone involved. We will make a peace treaty among the three races and the Tower, and there we will discuss about what happened and stop this charade we have been doing for the last centuries. There is no point in continuing to wage this cold war among out three races and the addition to the Tower in the mix could cause serious unbalance and a new war could explode quite easily if we do not do things properly. We will retain Castiel here until them but we make a promise to return him to you afterward independent of the results of the peace talks, we will do it like this because he still is under treatment and his body still is far from the optimal condition. We will also give him what should have been his from the start, try to make amends and restore his body and soul as well as possible and we also swear to treat him with all the respect and care that he deserves, he is after all my nephew by blood."

Assassin was stumped, he came here thinking about fighting some enemies and rescue his disciple, not to talk politics. He was a warrior, not a politician.

After a few tense moments, Assassin said.

"Fine, have it your way. I will go tell the others your proposal, but if we do accept your idea we will still send some people to watch over him here and if he is to suffer in any way shape or form while here it WILL be seen as a war declaration."

And with that Assassin disappeared from sight and no one could perceive where he went to. It was like he was a shadow vanishing in the mist.


	80. Chapter 74

Castiel P.O.V.

Everything is darkness. There is nothingness everywhere, it is like I am on a void. I can't feel anything, can't move a muscle.

If it wasn't for this soothing feeling I am having right now I would claim that I probably am long dead. I am probably recuperating right now, or at least my body is. It is strange how I can remain calm like this, however, I've been locked in here for at least a month now. I am probably diving inside my own soul, it is like the near-death experiences that some people have, they do say that some see time pass overly fast and others see things passing in a slow-motion way. I probably fit on the second option.

Anyway, now that I literally got time to burn I might as well start training with this new, or depending on how I see it, or old power I have. The revelation that I am an angel was quite bizarre and crazy to me, but when you have OVER A FUCKING MONTH OF NOTHING TO DO you can take your sweat time to digest crazy shit (except for the fact twilight had anyone enjoying it, that one I will never understand). The fact that I spent most of this time complaining and cursing everything I could think of and then some more really helped my nerves.

I should not have much of a way of understanding it, much less train in said powers, but as I apparently am connected to heavens' system I have a large plethora of things to learn. Yet, the most important is to try to understand this new arm of mine. I admit having freaked out when I saw myself with this arm, not that I actually have eyes but I could still feel it clearly enough to understand that it now was a part of me. It seems that with the complete fusion I have received its power over light energy and, strangely enough, some of the power over the name Kokabiel. It is still not at the same level as he had but the fact that I now have limited control over heat and light is interesting.

Also, I feel that my powers have grown to a mid ultimate-class. Amazing I know, but when I consider that I could feel that this was simply the power that I should have had from the start and was taken away it just makes me mad that I didn't have it earlier. If I had it the result of my battle with Kokabie would probably be quite different.

Another thing is that since this seal on my powers broke down I also have a much more powerful connection to curses and, apparently, a strong connection to pure evil powers, which is a surprise since I never heard of an angel even using dark energy, much less evil energy that is one grade higher than just darkness (sort of like the difference between light and holy energies, essentially the same but the purity and capacity of the later is much higher than the former). I also will see if I can start using it somehow, but I am walking blind for this one here so my progress will probably not be quite as impressive.

The important part is to get stronger, no matter the way I go about it as long as I get stronger I will be happy. I need strength, enough strength that I can make sure that I don't have to go through a humiliating situation like that ever again, to depend on my enemies 'mercy' and sheer luck to barely survive after around two minutes. I refuse to go through that again, I REFUSE TO ALLOW FOR THAT TO HAPPEN AGAIN.

Let's start training then, I have a lot to learn and test even if I am like this. I just hope that the time here in my mind runs faster, I don't want to discover myself as an old-man while still a virgin.

* * *

3° person P.O.V.

"So we decided to send a small group to heaven to watch over Castiel while he is there. Remember that this is a considerably dangerous mission as we don't know if they will attack or do something to you when you are there. Are you girls still sure? If not I will understand and will simply send someone else for the job." Rin was sitting in her office talking to two girls. They were the best option since she understood that they could not send anyone that had a too complex situation right now, for instance, Miku was part of the Japanese Pantheon, Yuno and Kuroko were too likely to do something bad, Emily was a fallen angel, the twins ae faries and as such don't have a good relationship with Heaven (Heaven is hated by pretty much everyone really), and Seryu is too prone to cause a disaster as she is likely to try and explode everything around her for JUSTICE or something like that.

"I understand your concern Rin-sama, but I was made to be a bodyguard for Castiel-sama. It is my duty and reason of life to be there right now. I failed before in my mission but I will not fail again, otherwise, there would be no point to my existence." Ilyaelia said in her usual monotone voice.

"He is my master. I will protect." Was all that Serenity said.

Rin could not help but sigh. This was far from the best situation possible, she would rather send one of the servants or a stronger member of Judgment but they all were preparing for fighting Quillopoth and having to help deal with the growing problem with the Vampires, those guys are freaking annoying. Besides, if Assassin was the best option to go there among the servants the reaction of the others could well be imagined.

However, the biggest migraine was from the Greek Pantheon. Apparently, Castiel's self-proclaimed 'rival' heard what happened and decided to invade heaven to rescue him for the chance of fighting against each other again, 'an epic Oddissey worth of a new legend for the reincarnation of Achilles' he said. Trying to stop them is more trouble than it is worth it, especially since Rin had a side of her that wanted nothing more than let them go to heaven and do what they wanted. Then again, it would mean war and she wanted to avoid that for now as much as possible.

How could Castiel cause a headache while causing another headache when he was not even there in the first place? Is it something in the Emiya bloodline that makes them capable of infuriating her that naturally?

"*sigh* We will be sending you two after a while, you may leave now and when things are ready we will be calling for you." Rin said to the two girls. After the girls left she turned to the side and asked a Sister that she usually kept close by to get intel and spread info at a moment's notice. "How are the other kids holding up?"

"They were quite shaken up, says Misaka seriously trying to show how important this situation is. Yuno-sama, Kuroko-sama seem to have taken this the hardest, the two are training to better control their skills as we speak like their lives depended on it. Okuyasu-sama has gone with Miku-sama to the Japanese Pantheon to train there, Yuzuru-sama and Kaguya-sama also decided to leave and head straight to the fairy realm to train there. Misaka explains while trying not to show that she wants to go to the bathroom, the burrito she ate earlier trying to fight her with a vengeance as I speak."

"Why are you still here then? Go on." Rin said releasing the Sister of her duties so as to let her go relieve herself. Rin still wondered how they got a taco bell here, that place really spread to everywhere.

As she was let alone Rin could only think that she had to make sure that these peace talks work out. The Tower will need as many allies and fighting power if they wanted a chance of beating Quillopoth and getting her revenge. They also needed to discover the reason behind the sudden light immunity of the vampires of the Tepes faction, if what they did could be amplified to make their bodies even stronger the vampires would become a bigger headache than they are now, especially since the Tower had a very hostile relationship with those egocentric bloodsuckers. And to make matters even better they still haven't found any info about the current user of the Sephiroth Grail, something the Tower has been looking for over a decade to test a theory that may make things very different for the Tower as a whole.

Huh, is it possible that the three things are related somehow? Nah, what is the chance of that?

* * *

On Kuoh things were coming back to normal. The devils worked hard in fixing the damage to the school and the city and in just one day they managed to fix it all and even returned the population of the town with some modified memories back to their homes. It was like nothing happened, except that it did. For those who were magically attuned it was clear that there was a weird energy in the air that felt close to the holy energy that angels release but it was still quite different.

According to what Issei heard it was the energy that was used in the ritual to create Argetlan, the energy of the world itself but that was tinged with a light element. It wasn't troublesome or anything for them, it did not hurt the devils in the city or anything, but it still troubled them since then it made their senses a bit duller, almost as if it was always day here.

In such an ambient that the student council of Kuoh Academy was working as if usual. It was an extremely boring affair, pure routine as if what happened a few days ago never happened in the first place. The only real difference was that the fuku-taichou was clearly not working as well as usual. She had her head elsewhere the whole time, Tsubaki kept thinking about what happened and blaming herself for not being stronger. Sona too wanted to get stronger but did not know where to start.

Suddenly a teleportation circle appeared in the center of the room, normally Sona would be worried about who it was but considering that there was the symbol of the Sitri clan n the circle she was not worried, but she was already annoyed.

"SONA-TAN, your beloved sister came here to make you happy!" A cheerful voice said as soon as it was devilish possible. Following that the figure of Serafall appeared in the student council room. The Leviathan, already wearing her usual magical girl dress, jumped at her younger sister faster that Sona could react, thus suffering from a serious case of cheek rubbing.

How could just rubbing their cheeks together cause so much shame to Sona?

"Boss, that should be enough. We came here in official matters and not in a social visit." A serious voice said as the others turned to look and realized that there was someone else in the circle, they never realized since they were so overwhelmed by Serafal's presence.

This new addition looked like a young girl with perhaps 12 years old, she had a small body that gave the impression of fragility, shoulder length blond hair, and a doll-like face with two cold blue eyes. She also wore a military uniform and kept a rifle in her back at all times.

"Buuhh, magical green is trying to ruin my happy reunion with So-tan. Meannie." Serafall said to the other person, earning a twitching eyebrow from said person.

"You know I am no magical green, I am your queen Tanya Von Degurachaff." Tanya said, earning a pullback from all devils there that did not know her previously. Tanya was a soldier during world war 1 and she fought using only basic magic in such a way that she almost won the entire battle for the allies, but the supernatural side could not allow for her to keep doing what she wanted since she could risk completely exposing magic to the world at large. But she was persistent to say the least, with only the magic equivalent to a high mid-class she took out many ultimate-class beings and managed to run away from someone on the super-class. In the end, she agreed to work under Serafall and abandoned the fighting front, she saw no chance of winning anymore so she might as well go to work for the one with the best conditions.

Problem is, this one saw her magic fighting as a magical girl fighting for her country and pesters Tanya to this day to accept being called Magical Green.

Tanya regrets everything.

"*sigh* Fine, miss ruin plans. Have it your way." Serafall said with a pout. She then took a more serious approach and sat on the chair in front of Sona. "I have news that will interest you." That got Sona's attention, anything that could make her older sister be serious like this was nothing to scoff at. "In a few days, we will be having a peace treaty between Grigory, heavens, the underworld, and the Tower. If everything goes well then peace will be achieved for all. In the schedule, we also have to talk about young Castiel's position and about what shaw be done to Kokabiel, and as someone who actively participated in the fight, you will be requested to be there as well."

Sona nodded with a serious face. She understood how these talks were important, possibly a turning point for the entire devil race, she had to try and make sure it all ends up perfect.

Serafall saw her younger sister reaction and all she could try to do is not jump at her for being so cute. How could a worried Sona be so cute? It should be a crime, but if it was Serafall would jump right ahead and bust her sister out of jail and then proceed to freeze said jail.

As she was about to leave, Tanya was hurrying her along because of her tight schedule, Serafall noticed how down her sister's queen looked.

"So-tan, is something wrong with Tsubaki-chan?" Serafall asked. Sona thought of not saying anything, but considering how things were going with Tsubaki and Castiel, and especially with his new identity and status, a relationship blossoming any time soon seems unlikely. If that is so she might as well use her sister for something constructive for a change, maybe her craziness can be positive for once.

"It is because of Castiel, Tsubaki is in love with him for quite some time now but she is clueless in how to show it directly and he, despite the large number of woman he is with, is completely and totally clueless about reading the signs of anyone that don't shove what they want down his throat. And now that his political condition is strange and it is possible that he ends up associated with heaven the chances of the relationship blossoming is even lesser." With that Sona caught a small tissue and started acting as if she was wiping her tears. "Maybe she just was not meant to be happy."

And that tidbit was enough to make Serafall react, she considered herself a magic girl, there is no way she was going to do nothing when the happiness and love of an innocent maiden was in danger.

"Oh, don't you worry Tsubaki-chan. I will make sure that you will get your happiness." Serafall promised Tsubaki, earning a raised twitching eyebrow from her Queen. Tanya knew that her King was planning something that could potentially mean war and the devil known as the devil of the Rhine could only wonder if she should have accepted working for the Greek Pantheon instead.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Greek Pantheon

In the middle of a mountain a body fitting contest was being made as sounds of an unending party happened in a temple nearby and the sound of MANY drunk people running around, some as naked as they came to the world, was happening. Or, as anyone that knows that place would say, just another Thursday.

BOOM

And, of course, some battle started between deities that could destroy an entire mountain with one attack, right among everyone else, and while the two contestants were dead drunk, because why the fuck not.

* * *

Yeah... Tanya realized that she might be better with Serafall. The headache with Serafall was less of an eternal constant than the option. The Greeks are just too happy and full of party and desire to create a mess.

"B-but even if I can be with him I will only pull him back. I am just too weak right now, I don't know what to do." Tsubaki said while holding back some tears. She had an absurdly active imagination so she kept imagining all sorts of scenarios in her mind and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of it.

"Oh, you are worried about being weak?" Serafall asked with a comforting smile before patting Tsubaki's head and said. "Don't worry, I can take care of that quite easily."

"I-is it true?" Tsubaki asked while full of hope. She, like many others, was very disturbed after that night. The feeling of powerlessness was something she had to deal with a lot while growing up, and after turning into a devil she thought she would not have to deal with it again yet that fight had forced her to re-experience the same powerlessness even after her 'power-up' from her balance breaker.

"Yeah, I have the perfect solution right here. It is Magical Green-chan." Serafall said, much to the irk of Tanya. Tanya just wanted to live a peaceful and calm life while doing as little as possible and earning a lot, but here she was as the 'babysitter' of an overpowered 'child'. She blames being X (the being who initially gave her powers, she never found him and can't remember his face right due to probably mental interference, but she swore long ago to kill him if she ever meets him). "Well, I have to go now. My new pawn still needs to learn a lot and I have to prepare for the peace talks, and I especially have to go and have a talk in the Tower about what I just heard. Tsubaki-chan, I am going to be your Magical Godmother and realize your wish." Serafall said while giving a twirl much like in those classic fairy tails before disappearing.

Sona could only look and hope VERY HARD that her sister wouldn't do something absurd to get what she wanted, but she knew better than to hope for the impossible.

Tanya did not even bother to hope for the impossible, she knew that it was impossible from the start that Serafall wouldn't do something absurd after hearing this story. And she also was quite sure that the reason why she sent her away was to do stuff that Tanya would NEVER agree to. Sighing Tanya recomposed herself, dealing with a crazed boss was something she was used to even if she could never agree with it, but at least this was a 'vacation' for Tanya too and, more importantly, a chance to relieve stress in the best way she knew.

Being the cruelest instructor in the entire Underworld.

"Listen here maggot, we are going right now and start training you into less of a piece of trash. Perhaps I can even turn you into a less useless piece of garbage." Tanya said walking towards Tsubaki.

"B-but I am working here right now and-"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion Spinless Maggot." Tanya said sternly. "Sona-sama, I will be borrowing your queen for a while. Don't worry, she will be coming back as less of pure garbage and something close to deserving being called less of a living target. Or you will have your queen piece back, it is 70/30 right now of chances."

Sona's face lost color when she heard that. For many people it might seem like an overstatement just to put pressure on Tsubaki, but Sona knew that her family forces were trained by Tanya and while the results were unquestionable (her house boosted of the most elite fighters now, and the number keep increasing) the mortality rate of the training Tanya put others through was over 90%.

"Don't get to the point of killing her or I will tell my sister that you made me sad." Sona said much to the annoyance of Tanya. If Serafall was told that she caused 'So-tan' to be sad Tanya did not doubt she would be put through hell, which in her case was watching that awful show while doing ALL the paperwork possible for the next century or so, and that would be 'going easy' on her.

"Tch, fine. It will only come inches from death and not actually kill her. Happy?" Tanya said while already walking away while holding Tsubaki, but then she stopped and turned to Sona to ask something. "I almost forgot to ask but when do you intend to find people to fill in your peerage Sona-sama?"

"I found four people that seems very interesting but I still will need more time to convince any of them to join, and I don't even know if it would be possible to reincarnate any of those four." Sona said remembering of those four individuals that she started contacting not long ago. If she could actually do it for even one of them the results would be amazing, her peerage would be at least as strong as Rias'.

"Good to know. Then, I bid you goodbye." Tanya said as she entered the magical circle together with Tsubaki.

Tsubaki would see what the true hell was like for the next few days.

* * *

Issei was going through a contract right now, which strangely enough included playing a video-game with this weird dude on a yukata. It was weird how this man called for him only to start playing video games with him.

"...so? Has something interesting happened these last few days?" The man asked Issei.

Issei nodded and said.

"Yeah, I and some friends had to go deal with a jerk that tried to ruin everything. We managed to survive but it was hard and an ally was taken away. I wonder if he is fine." Issei said while looking at nothing, just remembering how Buchou said that they could not move and rescue Castiel. Well, at least there was some good news for the young pervert in the form of Irina who entered Rias' peerage as a knight after she was excommunicated from the church because she discovered about God's death. From what he heard Xenovia was much the same but before Rias could try and approach her she had decided to go to the Tower and be part of Judgment, it was something to do with understanding more Durandal or something like this.

He had been training whenever he can since, well except for the times where he must go do contracts and the date he had with Irina and Koneko. It was probably the best moments of his life, going on dates with two hot chicks was a dream come true for Issei.

The man heard what he said and answered.

"You shouldn't lose focus." And the screen of the game said 'You LOSE' to Issei, apparently he lost the moment he stopped looking at the game.

"Oh, this sucks. You cheated me in losing focus." Issei said to the man beside him.

"Haha, yeah I did. But it is your fault to lose focus so easily, devil-kun." The man answered well naturedly while standing up. "Ah Ahh, I need my sake after beating you. A handicap if you may."

"You super sucks." Issei said and much to his surprise saw the man drop the happy smile for a more self-degenerative one.

"Yeah, I bet this is what my daughter thinks of me too. I suck." And with a mocking laugh, he said. "But don't worry, Castiel is fine from what I heard."

At that tidbit, Issei jumped to the side and already released his sacred gear and was ready to fight or flee at a moments notice. He never said Castiel's name and the number of those who know what happened exactly are short, to say the least. If this man knows there is a chance that he might be an enemy and Issei would rather not take the chance.

"Calm down, Sekyriutei. I did not come here to fight you, only to observe and see how your Longinus is going along while I wait for the show to start." The man said.

"Show? What show are you talking about?" Issei asked while inching closer to the window little by little.

"In two weeks peace talks will be made between the fallen angels, heavens, and the devil kind, and it will be right here is Kuoh." The man explained. "And as to who I am, you can call me Azazel the leader of Grigory and the fallen angel's governor." Azazel said while opening his twelve wings.

"Oh, you are the shitty dad of Emily-san right?" Issei blurted out and, much to his surprise, seemed to have given Azazel a critical attack if his expression and the hunched figure was anything to go by.

"Yeah, you can say that. I was a shitty dad to my baby girl, but do you know where I could find her? I have something to give to her." Azazel answered and when he saw Issei hesitation he continued. "Don't worry, I swear I will not do anything against her or anyone else in town until the peace treaty starts. I swear in my honor in the name of Azazel, the one to give mankind their first weapons."

Issei listened and decided to answer.

"She is probably in the house she shares with Castiel." Issei almost wet his pants from the killing intent Azazel released when he heard how his daughter was already living with some man.

"Thanks." Azazel said and just as he was about to lie he said. "And don't worry about Castiel, he is currently staying in heavens until the peace talks but afterward he will be coming back here."

Azazel the proceded to open his wings, use a simple magic to refract light so as to turn invisible as he flies and went straight to the Tower's house in Kuoh.

Fun fact, the first thing that happened when Emily opened the door and saw him was

CRUNCH

A new attack on the chances of having a new younger sibling.

* * *

"Are you sure?" A man in priests clothes asked the one bowing to him.

"Yes Lord Maxwell, we have received concrete proof from our allies that there will be peace talks between the three factions." The kneeling man said.

Maxwell heard that and, in contrast to what most would expect, started to laugh maniacally in sheer glee.

"That is excellent. Such a wonderful chance is rare to come by. Bao, go and contact Quillopoth and the heor-faction and propose a united attack against those heathens who dared to even think that this was a good idea." Maxwell said to Bao who nodded his head and proceeded outside to do his duty.

After a few seconds of silence, a new voice said from the back.

"Are you sure this is for the better? Working with those lunatics from Quillopoth I mean."

"Sure it is. Infuriating as it is to work with them they still have their uses and I think an attack such as this would benefit them as well, they do need distractions to make their 'master plan' to work after all and we will make the biggest distraction possible. And it won't be a problem in the end anyway as we still have you and your magnificent new works, isn't that right Tucker-sensei?"

The man behind him bowed to his leader, his long cape sweeping the floor as he did that and the book on his hand still firmly in there.

"Of course, just remember that I still await for information about my dear daughter Jeanne."

"Sure, as soon as we have info on her we will move to rescue her and deliver her back to you." Maxwell said, trying hard not to show the despise he felt for the man and that cursed book he carries. The things he has done to the girl were too much even for Maxwell, torturing a little kid repeatedly to try and remove any love for God she might have and trying to reshape her to his tastes was a new level of sick. It was one of the very, VERY, few things he thought the Tower did good was finding out about this and taking the girl out of this bastard's hands, if only the Tower was willing to kill every heathen in existence as they should by all means then Maxwell may have even been willing to let them lick his boots.

But then again, if you consider that Shu was a descendant of Gilles de Rais and inherited that disgusting heathen soul then his actions can even be seen as going easy on Jeanne. If it wasn't for the alchemical and magical expertise that Shu had Maxwell would have killed the abomination long ago, but in the end, all that mattered was the results. He would use everything he could to make his long-cherished dream a reality. To exterminate the devil race at large.

Just as God wanted.


	81. Chapter 75

Castiel P.O.V.

It has been 7 years now, SEVEN fUCKING YEARS that I am stuck in my own mind. And let me tell you, this is BORING. I mean, it is seven whole years with only my own thoughts to keep myself busy. I miss the girls and the Tower so much, so very much. I want to wake up already, but it seems like it will still take a while for it to happen.

Sigh, this is awful. It is just too boring here, the only thing I can do is quietly train. And train I did.

I spent this entire time connecting and understanding my 'new' angelic powers, the evil energy I control and Argetlan. An interesting thing is that Argetlan seems to have stolen part of Kokabiel's power over light and flames, and boy am I making good use of it. I have managed to harvest this power in such a way as to use it as a fire-based attack, and it also helped me in that new magic I was trying to develop. I also gained a bigger understanding of space thanks to the power from my OWN name, the ability to make shields in different places and transport and control them in a limited space. But more importantly I learned about one of the natural skills that only archangels can use (or those like me who have the name of one) the skill **Blunt** that allows me to either raise my defense or attack by putting energy into either my veins (defense) or arteries (attack) making my body be either much tougher to damage or raise my attack powers to almost twice the power I normally can use. The problem is that as my body isn't fully angel due to my human heritage I am still learning more on Blunt so I can only use the defensive form.

But, something interesting is that I found something quite unique that I had no idea before. My test on what natural affinities I had was wrong.

The fact is that the seal that was put on me locked most of everything I had, thus making only a small part of my affinities and talent to be available for me growing up.

Instead of my affinities being Blessing and Curse, it is actualy four different ones. Holy, from my angel side, Evil, from the fragments of the grail inside me (quite the shock when I found out, but I had way too much time on my hand to calm down), and also two from my human side.

Fire and Metal.

I think it may be because of my father, he did usually chant that 'Fire is my blood and Metal is my body' so I guess this ended up influencing me. But, those two affinities are not that big on me since my powers still tend more to Holy and Evil. Metal is so weak an affinity in me that I can only reinforce my body to higher level with this affinity as now my reinforcement can make my body be like pure metal, which is cool but it is all I gain from it. Fire is a bit better since I managed to combine it with the power dweling in Argetlan to form some attacks, but that is about it.

I also used this excess time to develop my two new personal magecraft spells that I've been trying for a while:

 **\- Brionac** being a spell that is based on a legendary spear that was capable of piercing anything. I make a small sealed space using witchcraft, transform the elements in there into highly flammable chemical compounds by the use of alchemy, activate a rune for flames or just a normal flame spell in there and then I send the concentrated flames at the enemy. I bet even if Kokabiel tried to defend himself he would fail miserably;

\- **Siegfried** is my new defensive spell. It is focussed in my own body and works in a similar fashion to my wings (it still is so weird to talk about how I have wings now) but it works in my full body. It basically reinforces and locks my body position in space and making modifying it in any way much harder, like a moving steel plate. It is weaker than my wings by a fair margin but it is enough that I would not fear an attack from most high-class beings so swarm tactics would not work with me anymore and the damage I receive will be lessened. I named it Siegfried because, despite the shit person that his 'descendant/badly made clone' is someone that I would happily kill after skinning alive and remove the soul after just to keep him in a mystical code that the Tower has for torturing souls (Caster made it 'just for me' if I ever betrayed or used Yuno, not that I ever would anyway), he still was an amazing warrior especially known for his insane defensive ability that made his skin almost impenetrable.

I also made some advances in controlling the evil and cursed energy, which is quite a tricky thing to do since the two are naturally insidious and hard to control. But I had plenty of time to burn and nothing else to do with my mind so I focussed on this too and as a result, I think I can create some interesting effects on any battlefield. My spells for this are not directly offensive with the exception of one called **TRUE DARK** that calls for a large descent of dark energy that can decompose and ruin anything inside its area of effect. I believe it is one of my strongest spells and it probably can hurt even high super-class enemies, which is about as high as I can reach considering my recent power level.

Now all I can do is imagine and try to analyze are the rune and witchcraft books and knowledge Lancer-sensei and Caster-sensei taught me respectively. It is going well, I have a better grasp of it now than before and I can probably use them for some interesting things later on.

Now all I need is to WAKE THE FUCK UP!

"*GRUNT* What is up with all this light? Is someone trying to burn my eyes... and why am I only seeing one side?... Wait a sec, it is light around me. IT IS LIGHT AROUND ME! I FINALLY WOKE THE FUCK UP, HOLLY SHIT I AM FINALLY AWAKE AGAIN!" I said as I woke up. It is surprising really, it is like one moment it is all dark and gloomy and next thing I know I am awake again.

I am so fucking happy to be awake again, so FREACKING happy.

Let's breathe in, breath out, breath in, breath out, I need to calm down. For all I know I can be on a prison cell or waiting to be experimented on. First things first I looked at myself over to see if everything is alright.

Wait a sec. *Touch the right side of his face* I really lost my right eye. Well, that sucks, but it could be worst. The Tower has ample technology to make me a new eye, I will even be capable of choosing between a homunculi-like eye or a robotic one (if I choose a robotic one I will definitely ask for laser beams like Cyclops from X-men, it would be awesome to have a laser eye).

Anyway, I continued to make the check-up on myself and I am surprised that I am back to what I should be like. If anything it to be called a difference is that now I don't have a right eye, my right arm is replaced by a noble phantasm level mystic code, and that my hair is longer now reaching close to my shoulders in a messy but cool way.

It could be worst, and by that, I mean waking up exactly like I was before.

Now let's do a deep analysis of my body. I need to know if that weird bloodlike silver liquid is doing something strange in my body.

As I do a structural grasping on my body I see that it is working just as well as my blood should do it. If anything it seems to carry more oxygen and make my metabolism much smoother than before, which gives my body more energy overall. I also see that it seems oddly normal for my body, almost as if it always had the potential to use this instead of regular blood.

Is it an angel thing? I never really head on angel's metabolism and all I learned was information from Heaven's system that I still need to test in real life, but this is a matter for me to learn more when I understand the situation better.

"Lord Castiel, it is good to see that you are awake." A monotone and neutral voice said beside me.

I tried to jump away from where I was lying down, but apparently, it was not strong enough to support sudden movements and I ended up dropping head first when my 'bed' dropped a bit.

I am making a fool of myself, huh.

As I raise my head I saw who talked. It was a girl with apparently 17 or 18 years old, she has a voluptuous build with long, rosy-pink hair styled in pigtails secured with dark-pink ribbons. Her hair also has an "ahoge" and she has emerald-colored eyes that look very expressionless, almost as if she was a machine. She had a pair of pink wings and a strange gadget in the place where her ears should be that look like mechanical half bells.

"Are you okay?" She asks me as I kept looking at her.

I nodded and said.

"Y-yeah, I am fine. I am sorry but where am I? And what are you?" She looks like an angel but the thing on her head and the energy in her indicates otherwise so I might as well ask.

"My name is Ikaros, model Alpha angeloid a special bio-cyborg that was made to help manage, protect, and overall care for any desire of the one I am assigned to. My current assignment by my creators is to follow the orders of the Archangels and Raphael-sama ordered me to stay here and help you with anything you want until he returns. And as for where you are, this is the sixth level of heaven the level where the archangels live." Ikarus said.

Well, ain't that a bad situation. I know for a fact that the Tower and Heaven are NOT allied in any way right now, we are actually close to exploding into a fight last I checked. I never really understood and everyone refused to explain to me why was that so I assume it is because of the time it took for them to remove that plague known as Iscariots of their ranks, and what happened to Jeanne did not make me any better inclined. To think they would capture her, an in-training agent of the Tower that we had saved from that bastard of a father' she had, to do God-knows-what to her only because of her sacred gear, totally disregarding our protection as we are 'heretic existences that should be purged' as most priests so eloquently like to say. The fact she was 'saved' by Diodora and apparently 'fell in love' with him and accepted the role of his pawn did not sit well with me at all.

There is NO WAY she would ever like that creep, I heard rumors of him selling his own people as sex-slaves to other houses behind the backs of his family but I never found any proof of it. Just imagining how I am forced to call him my 'ally' because the Tower is allied to the Astaroth clan thanks to Maou Beelzebub being the contracted devil of Sakura, this fact is enough to make me want to throw up in my own mouth, something I did more than once when I realized what is likely happening to her.

"What is my status here currently? Prisoner? Lab-Rat? 'Guest'? Officially, what it is?" I asked Ikaros.

"You are here as an honored guest and must remain here for the next two weeks, it is the time until the peace treaty." Ikaros said to me as she sat down looking with her droopy eyes at me.

As I look at her I understand that the situation is delicate right now. If the angels are going to a peace treaty it could only possibly be with the devils and maybe the fallen angels, the three have been in a cold state of war for far too long and the tensions are quite high and this last action of Kokabiel was enough to upset the delicate balance even further. And if I am remaining here and I do not hear the sound of war happening I have no doubts that the Tower is also participating in this talks and my position as a half-fallen and half-pure angel will be in question.

"*SIGH* This is all so troublesome. And I was here hoping to see one of the girls again."

Ikaros tilted her head in confusion and then stood up and said.

"There are two girls from the Tower here. Follow me." As she said that she started walking to an area close by.

As I followed her I noticed that this place seems almost like a jungle, there are simply so many herbs and medicines here that I do not know about. Maybe there is even one capable of regrowing my right eye, food for thought.

As we passed through a dense bush I started to heat a quiet sound from close by. It was somewhat similar to water.

SWEAT DROP

Are they taking a bath? Is it possible that they are relaxed enough to do that or is it because there has been so long? I must ask about it first.

"Ikaros-chan, for how long have I been sleeping?"

"It has been 7 days, lord Castiel." She answered.

Huh, so 1 day here was equivalent to a year inside my mind. If I could enter there whenever I need to help my magical training it would be VERY useful, even though I doubt this sort of 'luck chance' will be happening agan. Besides, now is not the time to think about this.

"Ikaros-cham, is it really okay for me to go there? I mean, they are probably taking a bath right now."

Ikaros looked at me for a few seconds and then she turned around and raised a large leaf that was blocking the vision of Paradise.

"Lord Castiel wanted to know if it is okay for him to go there." Ikaros said, making the three girls in there to look at me. First, there was a woman that I have no memories of haven ever seen, she has long purple-pink hair that reaches down to her knees and two white wings protruding near her hips. Her pupils are purple surrounded by a gold iris. Her ears are wing-shaped and she has a halo above her head. SHe is also very well endowed and has a beautiful face. The second one is someone I remember seeing from the corner of my eye when I was preparing for my battle against Kokabiel. She has long white hair, an absurdly and transcendental beauty to her face and everything about her makes me think of her as a delicate and fragile built, but her big bust and large rear show that she is not all that delicate-like. The final one was someone who I would recognize anywhere.

Serenity.

In the nude.

Right in front of me while standing up in all her glory

DROP DROP

Shit, my nose started bleeding a bit. Why am I in this situation? I should not think of her like this, I mean she and I are not in any serious relationship or anything. I just promised to protect her and be by her side and she swore to be beside me until the day she dies and that she will never leave me and that she is only happy when by my side.

...I am wondering if she meant anything more with that.

HUG

Before I coud react, which says a lot since my reaction speed is nothing to scoff at, Serenity was upon me in a bear hug.

I was about to remove her, she was after all naked and should go put on some clothes, but when I saw her trembling I decided otherwise. Instead of removing her I hugged her back.

"...sorry." She said in a whisper after over a minute of silence.

"What for? We are both alive and you fought with everything you had to save me, I saw how hurt you were and how you did your best. I can only thing that I do not deserve this much devotion from you." I told her honestly, and I meant every word. It was a desperate situation but I know that she was hurt badly in the previous fight against Kokabiel and she still stood up to try and rescue me. I could not ask for more, she truly was more than I deserve.

"No. It is my fault." Serenity said without looking at me, her face buried in my chest. "If it wasn't for me trying to 'save you' you would not have to pay for my life by using your own arm. I was too weak to help you when you needed me the most, and I failed in what is my reason to exist, I failed in killing your enem-"

"YOU are going to stop right there." I told her sternly, making her shut up. "I am not someone who is going to demand the impossible of those under me, and if I have one order that I want from you above all else, my only TRUE order I want you to follow for the rest of your life, is to live. I want you to live your life as fully as possible, never even think about suicidal ideas again. I don't know OR care if the Hassan of Serenity was used to this sort of things, but the Serenity in front of me is someone that is under me and I WILL NOT ALLOW FOR YOU TO THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY. And about my arm, don't worry. It was my decision to do that, and if I had to sacrifice even more I would not care at all. You are worthy of this much and even more Serenity, never doubt that." I told her, and I meant every word I just said.

She raised her head to look me in the eyes, they were deep red from the tears she released and her lip is ruptured from her biting it too hard, but I still think she looks beautif-

KISS

And that was how my first kiss with Serenity happened.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **Wow, I wanted to show that scene for a long, LONG, time. Serenity is probably my favorite servant in the fate franchise, and doing this like this just felt right to me.**

 **A few other things, first is that the skills I mentioned earlier are important as Siegfried and Bryonac are the first few truly original spells from Castiel he made from scratch. Second is that Blunt is the skill used by the Qincies from Bleach. Third, Castiel now is much stronger than before, he probably could face off against Kokabiel without much problem and survive without that much difficulty. Fourth, the reason as to only now Castiel finding out his two extra natures is that when he was sealed his natural affinities were lessened by a large degree and the weaker ones were completely sealed away.**

 **Also, I started another story by the name of _The Sword Magic Knight_ and it is a cross-over between Fate and Black Clover, a story that is actually quite good and is like a more 'mature' version of fairy tail as far as I can see. I hope you guys give it a shot if possible, thanks.**

 **Peace.**


	82. Chapter 76

Castiel P.O.V.

 _System Failure, fail to comprehend action, a total crash of internal processes, initiating reboot in_

 _3_

 _2_

 _1_

Wow, what just happened? I was talking with Serenity and

 _her lips were on me, we kissed and I felt the taste of her blood from the ruptured lips and the tears that she released. A messy kiss._

I, I need a moment. So she does really like me this way, the question now is if I like her too.

.

.

.

I strangely fell like an idiot to even have to ask that. I always thought her as an insanely beautiful girl inside and outside and decided long ago to protect her for life, that I would support her no matter what she wants to do. To be her 'warm place', and in the end, I know better than anyone how gentle she is inside and how much she has suffered during her life.

I could not even hurt her when it was a battle to the death, I am willing to do anything for her. When she was willing to kill herself for me, not only on the death arena but on that assassination attempt against Kokabiel, I could only want to protect her.

We really are a couple of suicidal idiots.

Huh, even calling us a 'couple' don't feel as weird as I thought it would.

"I-I won't force you t be with me." Serenity said, lowering her head. "I am a dirty and evil person, I killed too many and do not deserve to be with you. I do not deserve it. But I, I-"

KISS

I kissed her to shut her up.

As I let my tongue roll all over hers I took her with strength, not letting her get away even as she feebly resisted, I realized that I also wanted that. As I felt her small tongue to answer me I got even more excited with it and we continued kissing for what felt like an eternity but was only one minute.

"*pant* *pant*" Out of breath we separated a bit and then I said so close that we might as well still be kissing. "You are beautiful and pure inside Serenity, we may not know one another for that long but I can say this with absolute surety. And if you want to be with me I also want to be with you."

She gave me a smile.

A resplendent, beautiful and beyond pure smile of happiness.

I smiled back at her, and I could swear that the flowers around us blossomed a bit more.

"Oho, so the new species date while the woman are naked. Interesting info." A voice said from the pool, making me realize something.

I was kissing, a naked girl, while being watched.

.

.

.

.

.

.

FUCK

I turned around and bolted away so fast that I probably eft a small crater where my foot was.

I am NOT an exhibitionist pervert, that is Rias' stick, not mine.

* * *

After around ten more minutes I (that already ran all the way back from where I was) was waiting for Serenity and that other girl to come out of the bath. It was back to having nothing to do, so I decided to start analyzing the plants all around me.

It was actually quite fun, there were so many different and unique plants that I never saw before and imagining what pills could be made with them (not that I know so much of the subject, but I do admit that some pills are extremely useful and extremely interesting) was more entertaining than my last seven months combines (which was actually just 7 days, weird).

And the fact that it let me calm down from all that embarrassing stuff I just said was a cool bonus.

"Sorry for the wait, master." A cool voice said from the back as I was finishing studying a strange flower that released a fragrance that made my mind focus more. And while still under its effects I turned to see the new person arriving. It was that new girl I saw that was there on the fight against Kokabiel.

"Nah, it is all fine. And why are you calling me master anyway? I don't even know you." I told her.

"That may be so, but you still are my master." She said and kept quiet while looking at me.

"Oookay, fine. Whatever. I just want to know WHO you are exactly." I said.

"Sorry for not saying it before. My name is Ilyaelia, the latest homunculus created by Ilya-sama with the sole purpose to be your bodyguard and protect you as model MIKASA is still unavailable." She said giving me a respectful bow.

"Oho, so you are the one that Ilya was working on this last few months. I can say that it truly was a job well done." I commented, and I meant it. As I started to feel her presence more clearly it became clear that she was very strong, she was around high ultimate-class and only one step away from reaching super-class. I also noticed how, despite her cold exterior that is like an ice fairy (I have seen one, and the female ice fairy I saw was a stunning beauty like this one, but I did hear of a male ice fairy too but never met the guy), internally she had a lot of fire in her body, it is almost like she is a walking sun when you feel her energy.

Was Ilya trying to create her own homunculi version of the fire Longinus **Incinerate Anthem**? If so she is in the right direction for sure, the fire feeling is most of the same intensity and purity when compared (I had once to fight against the crazy witch with that Longinus, not a happy memory, I would enjoy presenting her with the edge of one of my blades for sure) and the fact that it is not being wielded by a crazy ass witch bitch makes it even better.

"Cool, but please don't be to restrained by that. I don't like people being forced to work under me, I can understand if this programming was necessary for you to activate, but don't like when they are forced. If possible do try to get a hobby, something to make you happy, and if you ever desire to find something else to do with your life please go and do so." I said to Ilyaelia, fuck that name is annoying. It is like Ilya wanted to name her after herself but decided otherwise on the last second. "I hope you won't mind but I'd rather call you something simpler. Your name is too much of a mouthful for my tastes, do you mind if I call you Lili?"

She bowed again and said.

"I do not mind how you desire to call me, even if you want to rename me it would not matter. I was made to serve you, I am nothing but a tool and-"

"Okay, you are going to stop right there. I don't want you to think of yourself as a tool or whatever. I want you to try and be yourself as a person, live life a little and all that. If you want to change names it is fine by me, but don't do it for anyone else but yourself." I said after interrupting her. She was just like the first Sister was, she is seeing herself as a pure tool instead of an individual and I don't want anyone working with me to think like that.

"If that is what you wish master."

A sweat drop rolled my back, I guess I will have to go with baby steps. Maybe with time, she will learn.

"Humm, so the new species is a womanizer that cannot spend long without flirting. Interesting, I wonder what else I can discover from you. A mystery is always so interesting *pant**pant*" A voice said from the foliage. Before long the girl I saw before with purple-pink hair appeared. She is also a beauty, but instead of a night lily, like Serenity, or an ice fairy, like Lili, she reminds me more of a brilliant and full of life Azalea. Another beauty so to say.

Am I lucky or not right now? I mean, I got into a relationship with Serenity (super luck) met three beautiful girls (another good luck) but am serving as an honored guest/hostage for the heavens (ultra bad luck in my opinion).

But, all in all, I may not be doing so bad.

"Hello to you, I guess. My name is Castiel Emyia, the Heir to the Tohsaka Tower and currently 'guest' of heaven." I told this new girl. "If possible I would rather not having the simple talk I am having with Lili here be interpreted as flirting, we don't know each other and it is not like I will go for any girl I see even if she is as beautiful as her or you. I am also sorry for asking but would you mind introducing yourself, and if possible stop panting and drolling."

She quickly recomposed herself and cleaned her mouth using her hand.

"I apologize, it is just that you are a complete mystery and there is just so much for me to learn. And my name is Jibril, the only Flugel." She said.

"Flugel? What is that?" I asked.

"A Flugel is an artificially created angel, and while I cannot be called an angel and am different in many aspects I am still plenty strong enough. But what interests me the most is knowledge, learning and discovering new things from all possible areas, and that is one of the reasons I am interested in you, or to be more specific the Tower. I heard that you guys accumulate knowledge from many different places and has top knot research that is incomparable with most other groups. I would love to go there to a visit." Jibril said.

Hum, she seems like the excitable type. Maybe I can use this in my favor (she is not under me, so I could care less about using her to my advantage).

"If you would like we could go there right now. I could even let you see the new researches we are making in alchemy, and I can tell that we are probably the best of the best in this area and in weapon creation. No other place can really compare to us in this aspect nowadays." I told her, trying to entice her in allowing me to leave, possibly even escort me back there.

She looks torn for a while before sighing and saying.

"I am sorry but that would be impossible. In the end, the archangels ordered me to not let you get out of the sixth heaven, and I will follow their lead. Especially the one from Gabriel-sama since she is my master."

"Tch." I unconsciously Tch'ed her, and here I was hoping for her to be an idiot.

"Anyway, in case you are hungry, we will prepare lunch for you. Is there any specific preference for your race?" She said with a small book already in hand. For those who are inattentive this might look like a note for what I want for dinner, but the title that says 'observations of the new species' tells me another story.

Sigh, I want to say that I don't know how to deal with a crazed girl who thinks about new knowledge all the type, that I never had to deal with this specific type of crazy, but my luck is such that I doubt there is any type of crazy that I have never dealt with before. At least none of my girls are this specific type of crazy, the only one I know that is like this is Lieselot Sherlock and she is one of the researchers and students from the Tower. If I am not mistaken she is also the one who trained Gasper, not that all of this matters right now.

"Anything is fine, as long as it is edible it is fine by me." I told her.

"No, you must eat nutritious food." A voice said from close by and as I turned around I saw a man with forest green hair and eyes, he looked so fitting in this green area that he almost disappeared in the background, but at the same time, he also was like the center of this all. And the energy in him is clearly high to an impossibly high degree and, despite the gentleness of this power, it clearly is of a level that could crush me in one attack flat.

"Understood, Raphael-sama." Jibril said before turning around and leaving for another area.

Raphael, one of the archangels, the one said to be The Healing of God if I am not mistaken and the best healer in heaven and among the best in the whole world. He must be the one to have healed me, I doubt there is anyone else here that could have done it.

I gave him a respectful bow and said.

"It is an honor meeting you, Raphael-sama. My name is Castiel Emiya and for healing me I am grateful, but I want to go back home now if you wouldn't mind. I am ready to represent the Tower in giving you a fitting payment if you are to be worried about that."

He smiled at me before shaking his head.

"It is a pleasure meeting you too, but you said something wrong there. The Tower might be your home, but this place is just as much if not more so your home too." He said.

Knitting my eyebrows I said.

"I am sorry but I do not understand what you mean by that, I know that I may be a part angel but I fail to see why I would call this place my home. After all, home is where family is, and. as far as I know, my mother, who I believe to be an angel, might be dead or is not interested in being my family. My place is not here, it is there with my ACTUAL family."

He simply smiled and said.

"I know you are feeling this way for now, but please don't close your heart for us. We too are family and would like to know you better, but I will leave this talks to latter as right now we have something more important to discuss."

"And that would be?" I raised an eyebrow at that question.

"Your health, of course." He said, giving me some degree of relief. I was worried he was going to say something ridiculous right now so hearing this is actually good for me.

"Of course, let's talk about this. It is not a bad idea to discuss this and I am curious in knowing how badly my body is after all that happened, especially with my blood not this strange." I said, to which he nodded and started talking.

"Ok, first and foremost I managed to heal most of all wounds your body sustained. It could be said that you are in excellent shape if you exclude the condition with your right arm and lack of the right eye. Your right arm, unfortunately, cannot be brought back to normal. Your body and soul recognized and were recognized by this wonderful piece of weaponry that carries the light of the world itself and part of the light from the stars thanks to its temporary use by Kokabiel. It is quite similar in function to a normal arm from one of the archangels, but even more perfect in comparison, which is saying something since the archangels were created perfect."

Well, ain't that a relief? So I will have to keep this prosthetic awesome arm anyway, and considering how Raphael is not with a butcher knife trying to remove it to reforge the Excalibur Fragments I will assume I am safe of having my members removed for a while. If only this arm could have a different color, I prefer white or golden colors over metallic ones any day so having it like this is kinda boring. Maybe I can paint it later, food for thought.

"Ok, I am close to Cyborg and even can launch 'lasers' from my hand now, I have people around me with extraordinary powers and all that so All that I am missing is a metamorphic friend that can turn into animals and an angst teen rip-off and to be called teen titans, I get that. Next."

With a chuckle he said.

"It is good that you are taking this all in stride so well."

Shrugging my shoulders I answered.

"Living in the Tower and seeing all sorts of shit makes someone learn to take some things in stride. Just learn from your mistakes, grow strong, and try to avoid making the same mistakes again. Heck, my first mission was when I was 10 and it was a disaster, I had to see a young girl my age lost both arms and lose her parents in front of her eyes. I still blame myself for not being there faster, but I try to avoid dwelling on those feelings and just go on with life."

He looks sad hearing this and says.

"You should not have to deal with this when you were still so young. You should not have to learn of the bad side of the world period." he then looks at me and asks. "But is that girl okay? The one who lost both arms I mean, if possible I could go take a look and try to reconstruct her arms."

"No, there is no need for that." I say shocking my head. "Seryu-chan is a strong girl and if she wanted we could have given her arms equal to the ones she lost just as well, but she chooses to get prosthetics that could give her the strength to protect those in need. To be a hero of JUSTICE, as she likes to say." I smiled fondly remembering the times I spent with her. She might be a bit on the crazy side of the spectrum, but she still is among the most wonderful and nicest people I know.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Kenya, Africa

BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"Run, it is the crazy bitch of the chainsaw and her monster dog." A stray devil said to the others that were about to attack a small settlement there.

"You will not get away evil doers." An orange haired girl said, killing two birds with one stone by killing stray devils and by relieving stress. Nothing better than killing tens of monsters in the most gruesome way possible to help remove that stress from her soulders.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT

Feeling the blood of those stray devils wash over her over and over she could not help the maniacal grin that terrorized the stray devils across the world in an almost instinctual level.

" **JUSTICE**!"

* * *

Such a sweet girl. I miss her already.

"If you say so." Raphael answered me "But I am surprised, I did not know you smiled like that for a female friend. It is almost like you are in love with her."

"Oh, I am. She is one of my girlfriends after all." I said, and it was like a disk scratching when he heard that. He completely froze and could not move for a while.

After a few seconds, he recuperated and said.

"But I heard you already have a fiancee."

"Oh, I do. More than one actually but I still am dating Seryu-chan."

"H-how many are you in a relationship with?" He asked, clearly disturbed by my words.

"Well, I am dating Seryu-chan and probably will date Kuroko-chan and I think I started dating Serenity a few minutes ago. And I am engaged to Yuno-chan, Yuzuru-chan, Kaguya-chan, and Miku-chan."

He looks at me, and after quite a while (enough to make me more than uncomfortable) he said.

"It really runs in your father's blood, the excessive luck with women the Emiya bloodline have is really impressive." I could only sweatdrop at that, and the worst part is that I agree that the 'luck' with women seems to be hereditary but the women that are attracted are, for the lack of better words, crazy and hard to handle in a way or another.

"*cough* *Cough* Could we go back to the matter about my health?" I said, trying to not focus anymore on this subject otherwise my image will be completely ruined. And was it just me or was Jibril in the back writing something while panting?

She is also a whole different type of crazy, I can just hope she doesn't end up interested in me. (Later I would desire to go back in time to kick myself for tempting fate, WHY do I keep doing this if it always comes back to bite my ass on the end?)

He looks distracted for a few seconds before smiling and saying.

"Sure, let's go back to what matters right now. About your eye, I can only say that recovering it to how it was is impossible. If it was a normal eye it would not be a problem but considering how it was the same type of mystical eyes that all archangels have" Interesting, so my mystical eyes are something I get from being recognized by the system as an archangel in potential. It is good to know, but totally irrelevant for me right now. "and as such it is not possible to remake them as they can be seen as a miracle of God in and of itself. But, we do have a large number of mystical eyes that we obtained from dead enemies and I am sure we can find one that would fit you well. For that part, I will leave Chamuel as he is the one that keeps all those eyes and is the highest authority in mystical eyes in the world right now with only Heimdall from the Norse Pantheon being a match."

Okay, I can get that. So basically they will give me a new mystical eye to replace the one I lost, cool. Especially since just looking with my left eye sucks, my sense of profundity is completely useless like this.

"Okay, is there anything else you need to tell me." I asked.

"Yes, in fact, there is. It is about your magical circuits, it seems like after the forceful and hasty sealing put into you when you were born they received a considerable amount of damage and thus dropped immensely in quality. For all rights, they should be of a much higher level, at least equivalent to blue blood magic circuits right now instead of a trash level. I am researching about ways to undoe the damage, but we managed to discover that after the seal was undone and you were brought to this area a bit of the damage has recovered, thus I believe that if you are to remain here long enough you will go back to how you should be. But returning to how you should be is highly unlikely unless something extraordinary and unique happens."

I raised my eyebrow at that, the prospect of having better magical circuits is VERY enticing. It has always been a sore point for me, the quality of my magic circuits limited me quite a lot in power output, even training became a chore in and of itself because I was always having to mind more of my limits than about the results. Heck, I was stranded in high mid-class for four years because of it, so hearing of a chance to get better now is a load of my back. That it would not be perfect is something is not that big of a deal as I never really expected to get any better period.

"This seems good and all, but could you explain to me about that seal thing you said. I mean, because of it I suffered at least a few aneurisms, vomited blood a few dozen times, felt lke magma was being purred in my veins, passed out in pain at least two dozen times, lagged behind my friends in power, had to do absurd trainings that left me on the limit between living and dying more times than I could care to count, and I am pretty sure that I could have fought better against Kokabiel and many other enemies before that tried to remove my head from my body. I need to know who did this shit to me."

Hearing this his smile dropped a bit as he said.

"It is not my place to explain it to you. I will only tell you this, you were not the only one who suffered because of it and let bygones be bygones may actually be for the better." After he said that he turned around and left, but before that, he turned to me and said with a more genuine smile. "I was almost forgetting after you finish eating and get cleaned up there is a surprise for you outside of this place. It is something extremely good that I can assure you that you will like"

Okay, now I am curious. What exactly it is that could make an archangel says it is 'extremely good'? And why am I somewhat comfortable talking to him? He should be a complete strange but I did not really feel that distant and strangeness normally felt when talking to a stranger from him at all.

Weird.


	83. Chapter 77

Castiel P.O.V.

After that talk, I was offered lunch by Ikaros. It was quite a good food and when I asked her she said that she was the one who cooked it.

I almost teared up in hearing about another girl who could cook ACTUALLY EDIBLE (and non-poisoned) food. This just might be an endangered species in this world, as most of the other girls I know could not boil water or would poison it by accident (or not in case of Yuno if Emily is eating too, those two really have a weird friendship).

When I finished lunch I went to take a bath. It was quite strange, the water here has a strong medicinal smell and is a mix of golden and green but it feels wonderful when touching my skin. I can even feel the energy in this water sipping into my body little by little, it is best than the feel medicinal baths I had in the Tower for after my more *cough* exciting trainings. I think I will never understand how covering me in raw meat steaks and then throwing me inside a lion's cage with over thirty hungry lions could be called as training, this one was for when I was 7 years old.

Again, my training while growing up was a tad bit insane.

But honestly, I could not care less right now, this water is so unbelievably relaxing that I feel like all my worries are being washed away. Even the thoughts of who is my mother, why am I here, and everything else is being washed away.

After the bath ended I put my clothes back, unfortunately, Serenity and Lili were too hasty and did not bring any of y own clothes so I had to use the same exorcist uniform that I saw Allen using.

I feel a bit dirty from using it and smell hypocrisy, the first chance I get I will ask for Lili to go back and catch some of my normal clothes or I just might go and think of burning people in stakes like many exorcists did.

"I need some other clothes soon." I whispered to no one.

"If that is so would you like this ones?" Jibril said, popping out of a solid rock as if it was not even there in the first place.

JUMP

I instinctively jumped away from her, she surprised me as I could not feel her before she spoken to me.

Dangerous.

If this was an enemy attack I would at the very least be wounded and potentially killed by that just now. I need to raise my awareness a bit more or I might be screwed.

Taking a breath to calm myself I said.

"Don't scare me like that, Jibril. I almost attacked you out of sheer instinct."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I would have been completely fine even if you were to attack me."She said dismissively, earning a raised eyebrow from me.

She might not know exactly how strong I am but her confidence is the real deal alright.

"Oho, and how strong are you?" I asked.

"Uhm, I have advanced to low super-class not long ago and could probably put up a decent fight against Kokabiel without a problem. See, strong enough right?" She asked 'sweetly', but considering how strong she said she is I would be adviced not to take her lightly. "And I must reiterate but I currently have no intention of fighting you so you have no reason to worry about it."

"Okay, I will believe it with a pinch of salt." I answered.

"That is for the better, it means that you as the only member of this whole new species is capable of being rational and suspicious as needed. Interesting information." She said "And about the clothes? Do you want me to go and fetch another type?" She asked.

"Sure, why not? This one makes me feel like a hypocrite just by using them so a different type would do well."

She nodded and said.

"Wait a minute and I will go see if there is anything I can do about it. Maybe there is something in the vault that would fit you."

And before I could say anything else to try and not let her go and steal clothes for me from what I believe might be the armory of heaven, she was gone in a flash.

If this is purely magic she is using, which I believe it is, then she is good. Passing through walls and teleportation are not particularly difficult spells to use, but using them in such a natural fashion is definitely not something anyone can do. She truly is someone to watch out for.

About a minute later she came back with a bundle of clothes in hand.

"Here, this one is probably good enough." She said, giving me a new set of clothing.

It was a white suit with matching pants with details and borders in gold, it also comes with a cape covering the back with large words saying PROTECTION, a bit gaudy but it is good enough I suppose.

Between this one and the one that most exorcists wear I take this one any time, less of a bloody history of too many mistakes and innocents being killed by the name of someone who never asked for those killings in the first place.

As I downed the suit I felt like it fit me very well, I have a total liberty of movement and I could feel when I put it that I can feel the energy around me a bit better.

Not too shabby.

And the fact that I looked damn cool wearing this was an added bonus, I felt about as good as I did wearing my old fighting uniform.

I turned to Jibril, who I hope but doubt that had the decency of not looking at me while I was changing but considering her capacity in magic I doubt she hadn't seen it. Sigh, I wish I wasn't used with people spying on me getting changed but I was living with Yuno and Kuroko for many years and I also am pretty sure that Serenity also partays in this costume.

"Thanks, Jibril, but won't it cause problems with you later on if they find out you gave this suit to me?"

"Don't worry about that, considering how things are right now as long as I say that it was a request from you there won't be any problems." Was the answer.

Well, I won't be shy about it them. I liked this suit better than the exorcist's clothes that they had offered me before anyway.

As we began to walk towards the outside of this place I noticed how I felt a strange sense of security from this suite, and so I decided to ask her about it.

"Jibril, what is this suit anyway? If it was in a vault here there is no way that it isn't a treasure somehow, so what is it?"

"Oh, this is a special set of clothes that God made after using the skin of a qilin and fur of a rampaging sacred dragon. It can speed up the training speed in holy spells, accelerate the rate of recovery of magic, gives a boost in the defense and increases luck by quite a bit. God just loved to create things and so he made this one just to pass time, originally it was supposed to be gifted to a victorious admiral from the great war but both God and said admiral died before it could be delivered." She answered. "In other words, it is something that was accumulating dust in a corner."

Hoh, this is interesting. These clothes seem like good stuff indeed, and the fact that it used such rare materials makes me see that it truly HAS to be amazing. Last I checked Qilins are already extinct and sacred dragons are about to reach this point as well, the two are mythical creatures that approach the level of a True Phoenix (not the devil clan, but the Divine Beast, one of the three strongest types of fire creatures of the entire multi-verse according to Zelretch) and are equals to the level of the Heavenly Dragons at the very least, both being of sacred and light nature so they feel great in my skin.

"Hey, did you think I look good in this Serenity?" I asked nowhere in specific.

"Yes, you do look good in this clothes." Serenity answered from somewhere no one was seeing, it was even hard to tell from where exactly the sound came from.

I could not help but smile a bit. The fact that Serenity was watching me for who knows how long is kinda funny if anyone asks me, is this her way of protecting me or is it her way of hiding her embarrassment? Honestly, I don't even care, I won't be minding every little detail about this, if she wants to do this she is more then welcome to keep doing the same as she did all this while.

Jibril was looking all around herself, failing to see where Serenity was completely.

"Where is she? Why can't I find her even when I use my magic?" Jibril said.

"Don't bother, Serenity is an excellent assassin and has some unique techniques that allow her to hide her presence much better than you could ever hope to find. Honestly speaking, I think that she might one day become the world's greatest expert in stealth. She is just that awesome." I told Jibril. This is also a little test from myself, if, no when she reports this to the archangels I will be able to see what their reaction will be like. If they do nothing then it is all good but if they ask her to leave or try to actively avoid her then it is possible that they have something important to hide from her and myself, thus I will know if these archangels mean me or the Tower harm or not.

A small little thing, but any type of info I get can be useful in somewhere and somehow.

After that, we just walked outside this home/small dimension. God must have had a LOT of free time on his hands if he has the time to create the sacred gears and this small dimensions for the archangels to like on, according to what I heard this dimension alone is almost the size of Japan in its entirety. To think that all of the archangels have this sort of places as their sleeping places is ridiculous at another level.

When we reached the outside I saw that the sixth heaven is basically bare, I mean, it is just a large empty space with the 'houses' of the archangels. Strangely enough, there are a total of twelve instead of seven houses, but a total of seven of them is illuminated while the other five do not have a shine, even if one is shinning very dimly.

In front of one of this houses, he saw a man with long purple hair and with many flower tattoos brushing his hair while looking at a mirror. If I was not in this place I would say that he is a devil that can only think of vanity, he just keeps looking at his own reflection so much.

Seeing no one else, and not knowing where to go from here, I decided to go and talk with this man.

"Hello." I said to him.

He slowly turned to me, and I swear to God he used some magic to create the same 'wind' that is used in commercials of hair products.

"Oh, hello there dear Castiel. What can I do to you?" He asked while still trying to look from the corner of his eye to the mirror.

Okay, this is most definitely Jophiel, the Beauty of God. I may not know that much about the archangels but I did study in the Tower about them in case I ever needed. Jophiel was the one who had a love for beauty and himself that baffled anyone, Michael was the one who was like a 'big-brother' who always tried to protect his family and heaven at all costs (probably why he was friends with Syrzechs, even if they couldn't show it that much), and the other one I have a bigger impression of is Gabriel. From what I heard she is a 'traitorous bitch that must never be trusted with anything of importance and can throw away anything without a second thought', I don't know how much it rings true but I will still be wary of her anyway. Especially considering that she is said to be someone who I should never ever trust in the slightest, worse than Hades and most Old Satan faction, which is saying something.

"Raphael-sama said that I would have a 'surprise' here and I was wondering if you could tell me what it is." I said.

"Sure, as long as you let me have those two girls from the Tower for today." Jophiel said, and I could only keep smiling as I turned around and started walking away. He looked baffled, and it was especially so when a new individual appeared from one of the houses that looked like it was catching fire constantly. And the new individual appeared with a booming laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Did you like that Jophiel? He refused your request without a second thought! YOUR FACE IS GOLD RIGHT NOW, PURE GOLD, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Shut it, Uriel, I did not ask or want your opinion!" Jophiel yelled as he throws his mirror at a laughing Uriel who did not even bother to defend, just released his aura for a bit to sublimate the mirror instantly. Jophiel snorted before turning to me, who was walking back to Raphael's house and said. "Calm down, young one. I just wanted for them to come and have tea with me, I am someone who loves beauty and I thought that the two of them are so beautiful that I had to at least know them better."

I turned my head to him and said.

"Sorry, but I do not intend of forcing them to do anything that they do not desire to do themselves. I may be their leader, but I will not use them as pieces or as bargain chips."

"*Whistle* Wow, to talk like that, you got balls little one, you have big balls. And I like that," Uriel says to me "See that Jophiel, did he pass your little test?"

Test? This was a test?

The Fuck?

Why exactly am I being tested here? And who gave these kidnappers the right to start testing me?

Fuck, you know what? Whatever. There isn't much of a point in getting mad with every little thing.

Jophiel showed an annoyed face and said.

"Yeah, yeah, he passed the test. Are you happy now Uriel? You won this one, here" Jophiel said, throwing a small bag at Uriel. "Now don't bother me again. And as for you" Jophiel turned to me and smiled with the corner of his lips. "Sorry for that, it was just a small bet between me and my doofus" "HEY!" "of a brother there. As for what it is that Raphael was talking about, you can go with that uncultured troglodyte" "Again, I am right here" "to go and catch it. And please, do come here sometimes to have some tea and snacks. You can even bring your friends too, I love beauty and you guys relationship and, in the case of the females the appearance itself, are a work of art worthy of admiration."

Jophiel them turned around and entered his house that looked like an art museum with a medieval and aristocratic air to it.

I honestly don't know HOW I should react to that. I suppose I should not freet on this now, it was probably a dumb sibling dispute that got out of hand and ended up involving me. I am used to this sort of things from Kaguya and Yuzuru, the two usually do that with me whenever we go out or the two are bored.

"Che, always with the last word." Uriel said as he approached me. "Hey, it is nice FINALLY meeting you. My name is Uriel, the _fire of God_ and, but you can call me whatever you want. So, let's cut straight to business shawl we?" He said, and before I could react he had put a hand on the back of my neck and lifted me before bolting far away extremely fast.

I am pretty sure that we are looking like a freaking meteorite right now, but as I am not feeling the heat or anything I won't complain too much.

In a question of a few seconds, we were in a completely different spot.

It was a huge safe. And by huge I mean gigantic, just the doors may as well be tens of kilometers high and with a thickness that was easy to imagine. Even if this was normal steel (which it was not) it would still take a high super-class just to move the damn thing, damaging it was even more improbable due to the sheer resistance that this thing boosted.

"Heh, impressive isn't it. This is Heaven's treasury, this is where we keep all the spoils of war and weapons father created, as well as where the sacred gears stay while waiting for the owners to be chosen and where the base from where God's system is." He said puffing his chest. "And this is also where your 'gift' is located. Follow me." And with that, he made some special runes in mid-air and released a drop of his blood, that I noticed is eerily similar to my new blood, and with that part of the gate open.

It was just then that I realized that the gate was divided into many separate partitions. It probably means until which point we will be able to advance, it would be pretty idiotic NOT to do that, after all, if it was invaded while the gates opened the System of Heaven might be affected and this is the worse taboo possible for the heavens.

"Now come here." He said, again catching me by the back of my neck and moving along. He is a very brash guy, isn't he?

Before long we passed through MANY different things that were true treasures, I saw unique fruits, magical armors, demonic weapons, divine constructs, and so much strange stuff that I don't even know what it was used for.

"And... we arrived." He said, finally stopping in front of... something.

It was hard to say what exactly was it, I mean it was like a slab of gold but the energy it is releasing is no joke.

"Try putting your hand on it, it will be easier to explain if you do that." Uriel said. I know it might be dangerous, but I honestly can't refuse him right now. If he wanted to he could literally just splatter me with one move and it would not even be that hard for him to do that. Self-preservation is a very strong motivator I tell you that.

As I put my hand in the metal its shine increased a few times over, it then released a small section and it flew to my neck before I could react. But, even as I saw that slab of metal flying to my neck I felt no danger from it whatsoever for as strange as it might sound.

CLINK

The metal basically liquefied when it came in contact with my skin, it than circulated my neck and solidified again as a necklace. But, I could feel as clear as day that it was not a simple necklace. This here was something else that was resonating with my angel side very strongly, almost like long lost brothers coming together.

"I knew this would work. The others were all worried and all, but I knew it would work in the end somehow." Uriel said with his more than loud voice.

Turning to him I asked while pointing at this necklace.

"What is this?"

"Oh, this is good stuff. It is called angelic foundation armor, an armor made by father for the archangels to wear 'casually', or in this case those who are recognized as future archangels or the ten-winged angels. This thing here is something all the archangels care, it is as much part of our power as our names or wings. Try putting some energy into it and you will see what I am talking about."

Nodding my head I did as he said.

As soon as I purred my energy on it I felt something change. It was like this necklace was back to that metal slab, one moment it was a necklace and the next a cocoon of energy surged around me.

As soon as this cocoon disappeared I felt like I was covered in something metallic. What the hell, what is this? I don't get why, but I feel like there's a sense of completion, a sense of reuniting with something long since denied me.

Looking down at my hands, I saw that they were covered in this golden set of gauntlets, and when I looked down at the rest of my body (the best I could, given these new 'limits' I have for my head mobility) I could see that I was covered in this golden Armour. From what I can tell, it looks like it took some inspiration from Roman Armor in terms of colors, since all of it was gold but with a crimson cape wrapped around my neck and flailing to the side. There was a similar sash coming down from my waist, with a matching gold one coming out from behind my lower back. On my legs were these baggy-looking pants made with the same material that the rest of the armor, but with such finesse and craftsmanship that it looks just like silk, and this pants were tucked into knee-high golden boots. Lastly, when I felt my head I found this smooth, angular helmet with a hole in the back to let my blonde hair stick out just a bit.

But instead of acknowledging the squealing fanboy in me (I love cool looking Armors, which is why I like Berserk, and most mecha animes) I turned my whole body around to face Uriel, whom had a knowing smile on his face. "Looks like you like it. As I said, this is foundation Armour for new Archangels. We all have one, now you do. Though you'll be needing it soon enough."

... Why do I get a similar feeling of dread in my gut when he said that? Like he would be worse than even my senseis? My body is SO not looking forward to that...

"THis armor has a few interesting effects. First, it that it raises your natural physical attributes by a quite a lot. Second, it makes the concentration rate and connection with the light energy around you raise by 50%. Third, it increases the power and decreases the consumption rate of the use of your name by 70%. Fourth, it works as a battery that can store up to twice your maximum energy and that recharges by itself while also increasing the power and magic energy generation rate of your magic core by 20%. Fifth, it looks great. This armor is quite special, and the fact that it is not as amazing as some of the Longinus that father created is because you still are not strong enough to see how incredible this means. It is an incredibly powerful item for us who are at Leader-class, I can assure you that, after all someone using it could fight a mid Leader-class while being low Leader-class with no problems and with ease. And it is the best armor possible for us after the divine thrones, but those are just to be used during a war and the most dangerous times since they are just that strong." Uriel said proudly.

It makes sense that he is proud of this, but it is not like he is gloating or anything so I understand why he is acting the way he is. This armor is quite good, but it is not the best item possible right now, especially if compared with some sacred gears and especially the Longinus class gears. However, this armor proves its worth the more the user grows, if... no, WHEN I reach leader-class this armor may as well be called Longinus if all those effects are applied as Uriel said.

And I did heard of the Divine Thrones, the absolute symbols of the power of Heaven, armors that can enhance the powers of an archangel to the point they would not fear facing multiple gods and devils stronger than them at once.

It was even said that the Divine Thrones are the equivalent of the true form for devils, but on steroids.

In any case, after that Uriel lets me deactivate the new and cool Armour by willing it. Apparently, its connected to me now so I just will it and I can go into it at will. Afterward, we continued this little tour of Heaven, though I never lost any of that tension from those words earlier.

Just what is in store for me?

Uriel guided me through some more stuff that I cannot even begin to comprehend right now, preferably because my mind kept wondering what the hell these Archangels' games were. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for their help and all but I've been brought up to think that nothing is free. Just look at Rin Sensei with her debt habits.

Eventually, we reach what looks like some form of a laboratory, which has a cylindrical shape and is covered with this glowing pure white glass. If a normal human saw this glass I wonder if they would go blind from the sheer brightness. Good thing I'm no normal human then, heck I'm not even sure if I classify as human at this point.

Stopping when we reached the middle of this lab, I look about to examine the equipment while also hoping Serenity was still close by. Knowing her, I bet she was, especially with what happened in the baths (don't blush Castiel, you're better than that and you were taught to be professional to officials from other factions).

"We've made it, this will be our last stop before we head off to see someone who wants to meet you very much for a long time." Uriel told him, before he clicked his fingers as he spoke clearly and filled with authority. "Brother Chamuel! Our guest is here for that!"

"Oh? A little bit earlier than I thought, but this is good. I was just finishing up." came a voice I furrowed my brows at. If I was any less courteous, I would have probably deployed this new Armour, but I'm better than that.

From some of the machinery scattered around this place, another Angel emerges. An Archangel with eyes that looked psychedelic and always changing, he was also wearing an obviously hastily put tunic over what I believe is a scientist's coat. I quickly run through my list of known Archangels, and I quickly come to the conclusion of this guy's name and identity. This was Chamuel, the Eye of God. If I'm not mistaken, he has one of the strongest eye powers in the supernatural world being only truly rivaled by two or three others.

Though, judging by his demeanor, he seems to be trying to act like a mysterious person but is honestly trying too hard. He just has that posture of someone who wants to work and work on his 'toys' all day, similar to Franky. I think this might be a trait of all scientists.

"I guess its good to meeting you face to face, young Castiel. I have been watching you for a long time and..."

"Brother, enough of your voyeur fetishes, we all know that you just enjoy looking at people getting screwed by fate and laughing to yourself when this happens. You should really get a better hobby than watching others do stupid things. That is why whatsap and internet is for anyway."

Uriel says this with the dullest tone I have ever seen him use. To be frank, I'm surprised his wings and Halo didn't dull in their glowing when he said that.

Though, it seems to have worked, since Chamuel's features turned to sheepish ones.

"Heh, you got me, brother. In any case..." he began to say, before he reached into his pocket, adopting a thoughtful and stern look to him. I wonder what was going to happen next, but I'll be ready for anything. Soon, he pulls something out of that pocket, and I first feel like its a weapon of sorts, but when he opens his hand, I see something else...

An eye.

This Eye looked like any eye you'd see on a person in terms of the eyeball, and heck the iris and pupil itself seem normal enough. But, when I sensed energy coming from it, I quickly realized how WRONG those thoughts were.

That just begs the question, what the heck is it?

Seeing my confused gaze, Chamuel saw fit to explain the situation. "My brothers informed me that thanks to our former comrade Kokabiel..." he snarled, disgust evident in his tone for the Fallen Angel. Though I don't disagree with his sentiments. Gladly for the two of us, he's been dealt with... hopefully. Not holding my breath here. "You lost one of your eyes for his twisted schemes of continuous conflict. Therefore, I have designed a new eye for you that should work as an ideal substitute."

After his explanation, Chamuel tossed the eye my way. I would have tried to catch it, but the eye just goes into my socket after turning into a golden light. A gasp escapes me no matter how much I struggled to keep it in as I fall onto one knee, clutching the socket it had entered. A fierce burning sensation briefly settled there, but to me that 'briefly' lasted longer than Berserker hunting me while on a sugar rush (THAT was a nightmare even to Illya sensei, and one that I once had to deal with when I was 13).

Finally, when the sensation vanishes I try to open my eyes-wait, what? Eyes? For a moment I couldn't help but stare in confusion when I saw that my vision was restored to its fullest again, before the revelation hits me like a volleyball falling flat on my face. "What... what the heck?"

"This is a Divine Eye, an eye that was once belonged to a God from the Zoroatroism Pantheon. It belonged to a great warrior there that was capable of seeing everything around him with such precision that it was awful to fight against him, the best analogy I would have is that Sharingan I heard so much about. As it belonged to a god of light it also helps the user develop an even greater affinity to light energy as he can manipulate light in a much more efficient way using it. I decided to use the original eye to create this one that you are using now, it is just a shame that I do not have the data from the fallen angeals about artificial sacred gears or I might have been able to process this one into one such gear." Chamuel explained seriously, holding a finger out all professor-like.

Honestly speaking, Chamuel is understating what this eye can do. Using it I can see light as if it is a substance and I feel like with time and practice I just might be able to control all light energy in my field of vision with simply a thought, a scary thing considering that light energy is always around and as such I would potentially be able ot replenish my energy, create weapons, and maybe even restraint others just by looking at them. Also, my field of vision is much larger than before and that much more detailed, it is absurd how good my eyesight is right now.

God. Damn. Cool.

"Yes, it is indeed cool." Uriel remarks with a smirk on his face, and I look towards him in surprise. How the heck did he read my mind like that? I'll have to deal with that issue later then, I can't afford to let this stand if I'm to properly protect the Tower and my loved ones. "But can this iris be turned off, I remember that beast and looking at its eye like this leaves me uncomfortable."

"Sure it is possible, young Castiel here only has to stop sending magic energy at it and everything will be fine." Chamuel explained. And it was only then that I realized that I was putting energy into my new eye. I counsciously lessened the amount of energy in it and quickly enough I felt that it must be normal again since my vision returned to almost the same as before, even if still much better than before, like if before I was seeing things in 360p and now it is in 4k better.

"Now then, let us be off. There's one other person to see, and you two need to talk as soon as possible because I can't handle any more bullshit from her current behavior. I mean, just go out and do it alreday, not like moping around is doing any good to anyone."

Now I am curious, who is it that wants to meet me this bad? And why am I feeling nervous and irritated like this?

I guess we are going to find out.


	84. Chapter 78

Castiel P.O.V

"Hey I know this might be hard, but please try not to judge what you are going to hear before she finishes explaining." Uriel said to me. "It will not be easy, but please try it. Okay?"

After this more than, let's say weird, sentence Uriel took me to go see one last place.

It was another one of these houses for the archangels. This one had a much more simplistic form, it looked just like a huge temple mixed with a Colosseum, all in white and gold with touches of red in a very beautiful manner.

"I will leave you here, and as for you" Uriel said turning to Serenity. "you should wait here for now. This is something we should avoid interfering as much as possible."

Serenity appeared out of thin air, her presence concealment as impressive as ever, and she reluctantly nodded to Uriel. He then pushed me forward as he took Serenity out of this place.

After walking deeper inside for a while I saw a woman in the distance. She has long blond hair and an appearance that would make any model jealous. SHe could only look at me with nervous eyes as I slowly approached her, strange feelings rolling in my stomach every step I take.

She then opened her mouth when I got close to her.

"H-hello, I, I don't know how to do this so let's begin with the introductions. My name is Gabriel, the messenger of God and its strength. It is ni-nice meeting you." She said in a melodious voice, but despite trying to look dignified she was a nervous wreck.

Why is she this nervous? We are just talking here and we have never met beforehand so why is she acting this way?

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, I guess. My name is Castiel Emiya, but you probably know that already. I am sorry but I got to ask, why are you so nervous?"

"Sorry, it is just that I had thought about this for such a long time, thinking about what I should do or say, I had so many plans. I even had a note just for this, but, but I honestly don't know what to do right now. So I will be as direct as possible." Ga riel said, her voice trembling all the way.

Why am I not getting a good vibe from this?

This entire day barely has begun and I already have way too much on my plate to think about, I can only hope this is nothing that important.

"Castiel, I am your mother."

Huh?

"I know it is a lot to take in, but it is the truth. I am your mother, Castiel."

* * *

3 person P.O.V.

Castiel stayed in place, no signs of any sort of movement from him at all.

Gabriel did not know what to do. She had imagined this for so long, desired to be with her baby so much, but even as the strongest woman in heaven she was terrified of what might happen.

After a while, Castiel finally opened his mouth.

"Why? Just why?" he started trembling. Even he did not know exactly what he wanted to hear with this question. This was all just too much for him. "Why did you do abandoned me? Why did you leave me after I was born? How could you do that?"

His voice was shaking and his eyes were empty. This could be said to be one of his weakest spots, the doubt as to why he was abandoned right after he was born. Rin even wondered once if this was the actual reason as to why he had this desire of NEVER letting those he considered under his protection to be hurt or to die, his own twisted way of dealing with the fact that it happened to him when he was born.

"I, I, I did it because of fear. I wanted to meet you more than anything, bi I feared what would happen to you if I did and-"

"Okay, stop. If you are going to lie at least make it believable. You abandoned me after I was just born, you never tried to contact me or, I don't know, let me know if you were alive or dead. I asked myself over and over again what was the reason, I even prayed to 'God' asking if I could meet my mother, I feared every Christmas thinking if I would get a present or not because I thought that I must have been a naughty boy and that was why I was the only one without a mother among my friends, but in the end this was all for naught. All the times I prayed and hoped to have a mother, to at least know if I had one or not, all for nothing. I even once believed to be a homunculus with my father's DNA, the Tower would be able to produce one, all the fear I felt then was for nothing.

"So don't give me that 'I was thinking of you' crap, you don't deserve that. I will not listen to any of it. But I must know, was it you who put that seal in me?"

Castiel said all that he always kept close to his heart, the words that he always wanted to tell to whoever was his 'mother'. His face that was pale not long ago now was flushed with rage. He did not know why or how, but the instant she said that she was his mother he believed her instinctively, and hated it the very next instant.

Gabriel heard it all, and it seemed that she was about to pass out due to sheer psychological pressure.

She could barely hold back her tears, she was so sad and angry with herself. Hearing those words out of her little baby's mouth was worse than any form of insult or damage she suffered while fighting on the great was and the great battle before that.

With trembling lips she opened her mouth, she desired deep in herself to lie, to say that it was not her who did that to him, to try and smooth things over. But, she felt it clear as day that she could not do that.

She already failed him enough for multiple lifetimes for what she did to him.

"Yes, it was me." She said, and all Castiel could do was hold himself back even if barely to not fly at her and attack. He heard from Raphael what the damage made by that seal was, about how it not only locked away his angelic powers but also damaged his magic circuits.

The suffering he felt to activate them, the amount of times he felt like his body was immersed in magma due to the sheer agony of having to force them further, the reason why despite training desperately from 12 until he was 16 he could not advance at all and turned from a talented person to being 'normal'.

He still remembered clearly, he had to train two, three, five, ten times harder than anyone else to get barely half the results. He lost count of how many times he got inches away from death only to get barely any better, even though he felt he should be able to get it much easier. It was always in the back of his mind, wondering why was it only him that had to go to such lengths just to barely get any stronger, it was so much that even Sairaorg's crazy training regimen was weak in comparison to all he did. He tried everything, and by everything it truly means everything as after countless weeks where he barely slept only to learn more and trying to find a way, and from the hundreds of ways he found he tried each and every one. Even those closest to him never realized how much he tried, how much more than what they expected he did, but no matter what the seal put in him made all that a wasted effort. He would never be as strong as he wished, as he felt he needed to do his duty to protect the Tower and all those he cared about.

He once even thought of entering the peerage of one of his friends, but due to his political position, he could not even do that. He was forced during years to be the one protected when in a mission with his buddies, he could even see Emily trying to limit her own training progress to not let him feel bad with himself as she had just about the same talent as him but much higher quality magical circuits, probably better than anyone else in the Tower.

And now, here he was. Facing the one who did that, the one who abandoned him when he was still a baby one day old.

Him not jumping at her and trying to extract some well-deserved vengeance was already proof enough of his mental fortitude.

She tried to explain, to tell him her reasons, but no matter what he heard of her pleas of sorrow he did not react in the slightest. Castiel simply turned his back and went outside, leaving a very sad and depressed Gabriel behind, crying her eyes out to no one.

In the end, despite all the maturity he showed most of the time and everything he has done during the years, he still was a hormonal teenager of 17 years old. Trying to make him listen when he was with a hot head was easier said than done, especially when he had more than enough reason to be mad.

"Please, let me explain. I am your mother and I just wante-"

That was as far as she said because Castiel simply left even faster, using a small mana burst to get out of there and leave a crestfallen Gabriel behind, even as the mana burst hurt his leg his brain did not even register it as remotely important by any means.

As Castiel left the place his breathing was elaborate and he seemed just about ready to release his pent-up anger.

"How did it go?" Uriel asked.

"Shut it. I don't want to talk about that." Castiel said briskly, glaring at Uriel for a moment before recomposing himself and sayung. "Do you have anywhere that I can go to train? I need to punch something until it or my hand breaks, and then hit it again."

Honestly speaking Uriel did not like what he could see that probably happened. For him to leave so fast and like this could only mean that the talk did not go so well. Uriel wanted to do something about it, but he knows that right now was not the time or place, it is better to let the kid release his pent up aggression somewhere.

Shaking his head and sighing he said.

"Right this way."

Uriel could only hope that after blowing some steam Castiel would calm down somewhat.

Castiel then walked with Uriel to Uriel's own house. Every archangel had a training facility for themselves inside their homes, the best one was undoubtedly Gabriel's but it was obvious that Castiel would not agree to go there right now, the second best was Michael's but he didn't give authorization and entering uninvited wasn't a good option. And thus they went for the third best, Uriel's one.

The place looked like a fire ring, it was a training location that put people under extreme heat while releasing hordes of fire constructs, the equivalent to golems made out of the fire to fight.

"How does this thing work?" Castiel asked, clearly trying to act as if nothing happened. But in the eyes of anyone even a bit observative it would be clear that it was forced, he was shaking a bit and despite trying to look interested with what was around he was not really looking at anything.

"*sigh* I can adjust a difficulty and fire constructs appear here, but please remember that the higher the level of an enemy the higher will be the heat and holy element in there." Uriel said. "But shouldn't you be talking wi-"

"Huh, so this is a battle simulator. Interesting." Castiel said, interrupting Uriel while ignoring what he had to say. "Would it be possible to set it up so as to force me to face enemies of mid ultimate-class? I want to test out my powers and I want to see what I can really do."

Uriel looked torn, he understood that it would be useless to try and talk with Castiel for now. And even if he talked to the kid he would refuse to even acknowledge the conversation.

"Sure, but I will only let it go until high high-class at the very most. We cannot let you get hurt right now or it might affect the already strained and difficult peace talks even further if there will be or not a war is up to this after all." Uriel said. "If you want to go any further than that I would have to be present to watch over you to make sure you are safe."

Castiel looks thoughtful for a time and then said.

"Okay then, let's keep it as high high-class for now. But after I start I'd want as much privacy as possible."

"Fine, but if it becomes too much at any point in time just say the password and the constructs will stop." Uriel said.

Raising an eyebrow Castiel asked.

"And what is the password?"

"It is: Uriel is the manliest."

Castiel looked dumbfounded at hearing that.

"Okay, so I go until you come back later." and for that Castiel meant 'I will not say that at fucking all'.

"Okay, I will be back in one hour." Uriel said.

"Make it four, at the very least." Castiel answered back.

Uriel could only shake his head and left the kid to go and release his pent-up emotions in a more constructive fashion, which means killing dozens or hundreds of enemies non-stop.

As Uriel left the first of the constructs appeared after the heat increased enough. It was over 300° Celsius and if it wasn't for the use of magic to keep the temperature at a more controlled level Castiel would be much more uncomfortable.

The construct that appeared looked just like a flame golem, a true puppet made of concentrated fire. Normally, with its energy and the heat it released it would be a challenge, but with one move Castiel took out Clarent, who now seemed to obey him much more readily and perfectly than ever before, and launched himself at the construct.

It tried to release some flames at Castiel, but wordlessly Castiel cut down the flames and the puppet with one swing of Clarent. It was not even three seconds and Castiel had already dealt with the first one, his new found speed and the capacity of using mana burst freely clearly increased Castiel speed to new heights.

After the first one was killed two appeared, and still wordlessly, Castiel cut the two down.

* * *

After the time was up, Castiel was breathing hard. Facing an army of those constructs was easier said than done, especially when they reached over 4 thousand of those clones was not something he could say was easy. He was quite tired, but the fire of hatred in his eyes still shined bright.

He was still not even nearly ready to have released all his pent-up rage he accumulated after more than 12 years of pain, but facing nameless and random constructs was not nearly as liberating as he would like. Sighing he was about to get out when.

"Wow, talk about having to release stress." A voice said from Castiel's back without he noticing anyone there before even as his _Field_ was activated.

Normally he would run away as far as possible, especially since he knows, by the sound of that nightmarish voice, who was talking on his back. But, right now he simply could not find in himself enough reason to even do that. Castiel slowly turned to the person at his back, clearly tired and without energy to even try to escape. "Missed me, dear godson?"

"Actually, for as amazing as it sounds, even you are a welcome sight right now Zelretch." Castiel said to the trollest of the trolls, his godfather Kischur Zelretch. "I am just happy to see true family right now."

That little bit actually made Zelretch surprised, since his 'little prank' of gifting Castiel the stinkiest and more potent stink bomb in the multiverse the boy has always tried to avoid him like the plague (which was quite hilarious for the vampire in question). However, he now said he was HAPPY to see him, and those words are as bad of a sign as it could be in Zelretch's opinion.

Now that the magician took a closer look he noticed some details about Castiel, details that told him about what happened. Of the fight, the ass-kicking that he suffered on the hands of Kokabiel, of how damaged his body got, of the rollercoaster that was his new relationship with Serenity and his new fiancee, of how he was kidnapped and kept as a 'guest' in heaven, of how he had to replace parts of his body because of having lost the previous ones, and of meeting his 'mother'.

By the end of it, it was the time for the training to end and Uriel entered the training room again.

When the archangel saw Zelretch he started to release cold sweat, that instantly evaporated. Uriel and many others knew of Zelretch, the magician had made his appearance not long ago and make an example of his powers by simply releasing his complete aura and almost decimating the Hindu Pantheon instantly, the reason being that he was angry with an attack they had done against the Tower and wanted to make an example out of the Hindu Pantheon. Zelretch said that he would not move or help the Tower actively again, but if it was truly destroyed he would not stay quiet.

Surprisingly as it may sound Zelretch did care for the Tower and especially Castiel because in all multi-verse he was the only one who could be considered actual family to the old vampire. Zelretch would not intervene or actively help solve Castiel's problems as he considered it as the boy's own things to take care of, but that doesn't mean that Uriel could be at ease while facing this man.

Not. One. Bit!

"You are Uriel, correct?" Zelretch said in a neutral tone.

Uriel simply nodded his head to that.

"Good, listen I know that you want to keep the boy here and all, but I will be taking him with me for an enthusiastic walk to help him cool down. No worries, he will be back in around one day so no need to worry about that." Zelretch then turned to Castiel and said. "Go kiss goodbye to your new girlfriend while I fetch those familiars of yours, they might come in handy."

And with a burst of kaleidoscopic light Zelretch was gone.

After that Castiel went out of Uriel's place to meet up with Serenity.

"Sorry, I know I should be spending this time with you now but, there is just too much on my head right now. I will be going with uncle Zelretch to a 'walk' and will be back tomorrow."

Serenity looked Castiel deep in the eyes and asked.

"Can't I go with you?"

"No, if I am correct this will be dangerous but I can be sure to not die or anything. Uncle Zelretch, in his own twisted trollish way, likes me too much to let me get killed when under his direct watch. I will be fine, so stay here or go back to the Tower. It is your choice. And please inform Lili of this too, I don't want to let her get worried or anything."

Serenity nodded minutely and said "Yes."

Smiling at this Castiel took a step forward to give a kiss on Serenity's lips, and when he was millimeters from actually doing it.

"Gotta go." Zelretch said as he teleported to his side, touched him, and teleported again.

* * *

Castiel P.O.V.

"The fuck uncle. Did you had to give me blue balls?" I asked while feeling pissed of. No one likes others interrupting them when they are that close to kissing their girlfriends.

"Had to? No. Wanted to see your reaction to it? Yes." Zelretch said, making me want to smack his head upside down for it.

Calming down somewhat I said.

"So? What did you want to show me?" Not that I am complaining about that, I do need some time now to calm down and get away from it all. It was all just too much, I need to have my peace and quiet... oh, who am I kidding? I want to kill and unleash all this pent up stress in a way that is just about letting this all out.

"Oh, it is quite interesting my dear godson." Zelretch said. "You know, after traveling to so many dimensions I stumbled with many interesting treasures, was presented with just as much or if not more, and took away many items that would only cause trouble where it was. The thing is, I have no real use for any of it as I am the closest thing to omnipotent someone can be already and becoming stronger is already meaningless to me. And so, while playing some RPG videogames, I was stuck with one idea after receiving items for completing missions. I would do just the same, and so I created this place here, the _Colosseum of the Strong_ , a place where with every win you can get an item that I have stored if it isn't a danger for yourself or the dimension you reside in, so no luck in getting a cheat item like the dragon balls, and yes there are seven of them here somewhere and they work just as well as in the anime, it was another side project of mine. I have anything you can imagine, and a lot more."

"Ohhh." Was all I could say. This sounds AWESOME! I know that uncle Zelretch has an absurdly high number of treasures in hand, and if I could obtain some of them I could potentially get much stronger, or better yet make the Tower stronger.

"But remember, it is only if you beat the challenges I prepared in this place. Now wait here, I will go fetch someone else to help you in this." Zelretch said, and was about to walk away when I said.

"Wait, I got to ask two things first: does the time here flows at the same speed as in my home dimension and who is it you are going to fetch?"

"Well, time here moves much faster so if you spend two weeks here it will be just a day there. This is the time limit to when I will be taking you back. And second, I will be going to catch someone interesting that one of my students was talking about. Apparently, he has similar potential to yours and would make for a good company since fighting all alone can get quite boring after a while and having someone to talk would do you some good, don't worry he is about as damaged inside as you, probably more." Well, isn't that interesting? Someone with a similar level of potential to me, someone who would eventually reach leader-class without even trying (and considering how I DO try I bet I can reach high leader-class or maybe even the limit of Leader-class, the sky is not the limit), means that he must be strong.

Just hope he is not a jack-ass or anything of the sort or I just might have to kill him, or if he hates pudding then I will definetly kill the infidel. I already am with as little patience as I could get and am NOT in a mental state to not do something that most would consider stupid or excessively violent.

As Zelretch was about to leave he turned to me, he must be seeing that I still need somewhere to throw my emotions at. Thanks to my now active magic core (God this thing could have been so useful for a long ass time, if I had it I would not have lost an arm and an eye, thanks Gabriel) I am full of energy again, I pumped myself with blessing to recover stamina after all and even if mentally tired I know that I need something to attack.

Maybe I was trained too much with Lancer and Caster in how to deal with too many negative emotions 'appropriately'.

"Seeing as you are a 'bit' stressed out, I know exactly what can cheer you up right now." Zelretch said as he snapped his fingers and magical circles appeared all around me. From them, a huge pack of monsters with varying levels of power appeared, all releasing bloodlust at me from all directions.

Oh, isn't it sweet that uncle Zelretch arranged for me exactly what I needed right now. A bunch of things I can kill without a second thought.

"Enjoy." Zelretch said, teleporting away from here.

Oh, I will enjoy this WAY more than I should. Some play violent videogames to release their stress, but this is the best shit for me.

Now, let the games begin.

* * *

 **Writer's Note:**

 **I AM SO, SO SORRY FOR THE DELAYS!**

 **I really am, it was not what I wanted at all but I started other stories and got so excited with them that when I realized this one was not on the top of my list as much as before.**

 **Anyway, this chapter was quite important as it showed how Castiel reacted to Gabriel, and to say it was not well is an understatement.**

 **Now, this will be extremely controversial, but this story will definetly not be on any hiatus despite the time I took to post this chapter. I and my great friend HunterXKiller87 talked about this crazy idea and we decided to follow through with it. We created about 20 cross-over chapters of this story with his One Eyes G Re:Birth, a great story by the way in which he puts a lot of effort and is very well developed. We will be posting the cross-over chapters in both our stories starting probably in a few days, first we will both post Bios of our stories and characters so as to let the reader know what they are dealing with and following that we will start posting one chapter each day, for those uninterested after the cross-over we will put a guide in each of our stories of everything obtained so as to let the continuity not have much problems. But I still recomend reading his story first, at least a few chapters, for you to get a feel to it better.**

 **And for those who might be curious, I already started chapter 107 of Heroic Heir, so there is a lot to happen. I will also start posting faster so as to be better, I hope you guys enjoy it and continue reading this fic I put so much effort in.**


	85. BIO for OEG main character, Nico

**Name** : Nico

 **Age** : 16

 **Gender** : male

 **Occupation** : Spec Ops Agent

 **Race** : One Eyed Ghoul and DPU Hybrid

 **DPU Name** : Crimson Soul

 **Kakugan Location** : Left Eye

 **Codename –** DEATHSTROKE

 **Likes -** Fighting, his comrades along with spending time with them, witnessing beautiful scenery, his clothes, his Bracers, Armour, weapons, hugs.

 **Dislikes -** People he doesn't acknowledge, injustice, Nobles along with anyone (aside from his mom, Neptune, Noire, and Vert) who is in a position of power, arrogant people, religion, his Ghoul Side.

 **Relationships -** He has a childhood friend relationship the Nurse Compa. He is close to a series of girls such as the Amnesiac Goddess Neptune, the Tsundere Goddess Noire, the gaming Goddess Vert (of his dimension), a series of Spec Ops Agents called Team RAIL (Raven, Aiden, Ivan and Lucy). He adoptive mother is Helen with an uncle called Koro, but aside from his close comrades he doesn't respect many peple unless they prove themselves worthy of it.

* * *

 **Appearance** : a lean built male of 5 foot 8, with gravity defying red hair like a certain copy ninja from a certain village, and light blue coloured eyes. His attire is a black trench coat with a mid-neck length collar to it, underneath being a matching black shirt with a crimson horned Skull imprinted on the centre, sporting a lipless maw of fanged teeth frozen into a rather sinister grin. This gave Nico a rather imposing 'bad boy' image, which was aided by the fingerless gloves on his hands, the rolled back cuffs, as well as the black leather pants on his lower body. They were held by a black belt with a silver buckle, with more belts hanging beside his waist. More belts wrapped around his thighs and knees, down to where they were tucked in to some matching leather boots.

* * *

 **Weapons and equipment** :

 **Portable Armour:**

Nico's primary tool for his missions is his portable Armour, which he deploys at will. It is one of his most powerful pieces of equipment, and has been with him since he first received it. The armor looks similar to the one used by the villain of the DC universe named Deathstroke or Slade, it is guarded inside his Bracers and it helps in protecting his body and not letting others see his eye when he starts drawing upon the strength of his Ghoul side.

* * *

 **Devil Arms:**

Devil Arms are various Demonic Weapons Nico acquires by defeating powerful Demons, with some exceptions. They are also the souls of the demons have been killed, solidified into the physical world, hence that is why they are separate from normal weaponry, and are incredibly difficult to destroy. If they were hit by an atomic bomb dead on, they would only take minor scratches, but depending on the type of weapon or energy used against it its basic defense can be smaller. Nico has access to a small collection of these weapons, a few due to having found them on his travels and others due to defeating powerful Demons that carried them. When the user dies the Devil Arms try to be transferred to the next person, or if no one else is available it remains waiting for someone who can take its power. Each of them have their own unique powers and abilities, allowing him access to various powers on the battlefield:

 **Claymore (Rebellion)** :

A massive Claymore with a heavy double-edged blade, notched on both sides near the tip. The pommel was a plain one, with a plain grip, but the guard is skeletal, with a skull-design on each side leading to the rib cage from which the blade emerged; on one side of the blade, the skull is that of a human, while the other uses a horned demon's skull. Lastly was the cross guard that was folded inward against the Ribs of the blade. The blade had a static aura around it, HF Technology having been outfitted into the blade itself to give it an increased damage effect. Both its edges were constantly crackling to enhance its dangerous appearance. Plasma energy canisters are on the bottom of the grip as a secondary energy source.

After his first DPU Transformation, it transforms into its true form, having tasted the demonic power during its first awakening. The cross guard had extended into a V shape instead of gripping the ribs. The skull, instead of being half human half demon, had turned into a demonic horned screaming skull. The spike crown at the bottom of the hilt had split open into separate like a makeshift crown. The HF Technology remains tough, something that Nico is relieved about upon seeing.

One thing of interest is that during his adventures Nico finds a book detailing sword techniques of impressive power that he adds to his own repertory to when using Rebellion. These are:

A) Windcutter - A light-speed attack in which the user draws their sword, slashes and resheaths the sword in an instant. Not as powerful as the Quicksword but is more accurate and doesn't require Demonic power to use, thus allows it's continuous use without tiring.

B) Quicksword - The Quicksword is a barrage of strikes too fast to follow, which can take down the most skilled of opponents, and at the same time it provides a nearly impenetrable defence.

C) Dust Eater - Dust Eater is a strange-looking technique that requires anchoring both feet to the ground and then moving the user's head like a pendulum. Using centrifugal force, the body is swung very close to the ground and the user attacks from this unusual angle, immobilizing the foe by hacking of all limbs.

D) Shadowhunter - The technique entails the user's blade following a specific energy signature, slashing continuously until the energy is extinguished. This leaves the user open however to attack when put in groups, and depending on the user's skill level, the technique can be a deciding factor in a one on one duel.

E) Drillsword – A technique which involves using demonic power to wind up the arm for a total of 21 rotations. When attacking, the arm unwinds, spinning the blade in hand reminiscent of a Drill with great thrusting capacity, hence the name.

F) Vipersword – Originally called Rippling Sword, but Nico changed it to Vipersword when he learns it, due to it resembling a wildly thrashing viper rather than the common serpent. could be classed as a variant The Vipersword uses the body's natural flexibility to vibrate and undulate the sword, making it resemble a rippling snake. This illusion makes it's blows almost impossible to anticipate or block.

 **Scythe (Harvester)**

Nico's Scythe, Harvester, is said to be the weapon of the Grim Reaper, Death, himself. The weapon was enormous, bigger than Nico was in terms of height. The Scythe had a jagged, wing-like blade with multiple spikes coming out the main edge, its color was black, with the wing-like blade being black where the fingers were and red where the 'webbing' would have been.

 **Teleport Slash** – Nico vanishes in a flashing blur of purple energy, reappearing before his target and slashing once with Harvester.

 **Death Grip** \- once it is pointing at an enemy, Nico's Harvester generates a floating purple, skeletal and astral hand that latches onto said enemy and pulls them towards Nico.

 **Harvest** – Nico spins into a horizontal slash, Harvester's blade transforming into a larger, wider, purple astral version of itself. Shadow Animation – Harvester coats itself in black miasma, which then goes into Nico's shadow to bring it to life as a fighting companion. It takes the form of Nico in his Armour, with a flaming dark violet eye and flaming violet wings reminiscent of his DPU Form. It also has a sword reminiscent of Soul Edge when it changed upon Nico going into Berserker Mode.

 **Shadow pack** – Harvester's Miasma generates a pack of 20 large, scorpion/wolf like Hybrid creatures that attack the enemy. Their bodies would look mostly like Wolves of black fir that emitted darkness, cloaking them in it like the SHADOW SERPENT, at least reaching up to Nico's waist in size while being the length of 1 metre. Their eyes would be like his previous constructs, with their teeth being as long as shortswords and their mouths having glowing violet interiors. They would have Scorpion Tails with violet stingers coming out their behinds though, with Scorpion legs coming out their backs that would extend and retract like whips, each leg ending in single violet talons. Their main arms would have elongated dark violet metal claws instead of paws, while their hind legs would be that of normal Wolves.

 **Shadow Serpent** – Harvester creates a Serpent from its darkness. It is at least 60 foot long, made of glistening black scales that oozed out dark Miasma like a cloak of darkness. Its head had a dark violet coloured armour over it, acting like a makeshift helmet. It's mouth had several long, violet fangs within it, along with a serpentine tongue while its eyes shone the same as his SHADOW ANIMATION. Dark violet spikes ran down its back.

 **Dark Nebula** – Nico swings Harvester and sends a bunch of miniature, compressed clouds formed from miasma, shaped like Nebulas hence the name. These clouds attack the enemy and explode upon contact, damaging them and giving them darkness blight: a debuff which takes away their sense of sight.

 **Battleaxe (Absolution):**

The two-handed Axe that the Defiler once possessed, before it became a Devil Arm and bonded with Nico's being. It wasn't used right away, but its appearance finally arrived when Nico went to rescue IF from the Hellverse Dungeon. As a Devil Arm, it possesses Corruption-based abilities that the Defiler once had. It could be used to slow down enemies by infusing their bones with Corruption, however Nico correctly assumed that wasn't all that Absolution was capable of. He nicknames the Corruption after its former master, Defiler Corruption which is the shortened to DC. The corruption used by Nico can devour foreign entities to energize itself or the weapon that controls it. With this Devil Arm, Nico uses it in the following ways:

 **DC Wave** – Nico swings horizontally, and launches a large black tidal wave of black mass and Tendrils towards his opponents. If it hits, it causes the slow-down effect that the Corruption is known for.

 **DC Spike Trails** – Nico smashes the ground in an overhead slam, and a trail of spikes rises up towards his opponent. Unlike the DC Wave with its wide hit box, it goes in a straight line, and lacks the slow down ability that many other attacks possess

 **DC Groundspikes** – Nico jumps into the air and slams Absolution into the ground. From beneath his enemy, 10 foot tall spikes rise out the ground, impaling and hoisting the enemy into the air.

 **DC Masses** – Nico swings Absolution and black masses of writing Tendrils detach from the blade, homing in on the enemy and are able to explode on command. They cover the enemy in corruption that makes them vulnerable to attack for a few seconds.

 **DC Walls** – A wall of corruption forms from Absolution's Shaft, about as tall as a human that blocks the enemy's attacks. Use of this ability at the right time staggers the enemy.

 **DC Tendrils** – Thrusting the Devil Arm forwards, Nico shoots dozens of long Tendrils from the blade that spear their opponent, but if they are blocked then Nico is staggered for a second.

 **DC Avatar** \- When this ability is activated, the multiple eyes on Absolution start shining a bright yellow hue. DC travels down from the blade and the Shaft, coating Nico's form and enlarging it, reshaping his form until he looked like the Defiler but made out of DC. There are slight differences however, and these include the fact that there are no Tendrils protruding from the Avatar's body, but instead there were 4 large bat wings, capable of flight.

 **Dual Pistols (Ebony and Ivory)** :

Nico's trusty, personalised semi-automatic pistols. They were designed as M1911 handguns chambered for .45 ACP rounds. They had pivot triggers, customised sights, ported muzzle compensators for less recoil with the barres extending through the compensators and ported to match the cut in said gun part, and both used reinforced slides. Ebony is in his left hand and coloured black, and Ivory was in his right and coloured white. They had bolted forward rails, double stack magazines with slam-pads, both had golden plated releases, hammers safety switches and triggers. One however, Ebony, had a hooked two-handed trigger guard while Ivory had a rounded trigger guard.

During an outing with Leanbox's CPU Vert, Nico's Guns showcase their true powers, and he becomes able to use a series of specialized rounds with their own pros and cons to them.

 **Cero** \- A powerful, crimson red blast or concentrated Demonic Power. Its potential for destruction apparently seemed to grow with the wielder's strength, Biko had noted, and at this moment in time it was capable of putting large holes through tall buildings.

 **Bala** \- A weaker version of a Cero which has no charge time and is 20 times faster. Could be fired from one gun or both at the same time, with the damage output being limited to small buildings (according to Biko's examinations).

 **Oscuras** \- A super charged black Cero, the strongest Cero that can destroy entire villages with ease. Though, it takes longer to charge than a normal Cero but to compensate it only needs one gun to be used, the other can still keep firing Ceros.

 **Metralleta** \- This is a Cero which is fired from either 1 or both guns, and is fired as a rapid barrage of Ceros. Like the Bala, it has no charge or recharge time, allowing for instant fire from one or both guns.

 **Mirada** \- Basically a 'dual Cero' as both guns release a Cero at once, allowing for double the damage a single Cero is capable of. However, the problem here is that it uses up both guns, leaving the user defenseless.

On top of that, he can still use normal bullets made from Demonic Power, further diversifying them.

 **Soul Edge** :

While originally a weapon unique only to his DPU Form: Crimson Soul, after Nico regains his demonic powers in the Underground Torture Dungeons of King Leoric, Nico gains the ability to summon a weaker version of Soul Edge like it was a Devil Arm. It has access to ¾ of its total attack power, with the abilities weakened Hellfire Manipulation, Shapeshifting (all forms), and weaker forms of each ability Soul Edge has access to. By the time he faces Logan in Skies End, he is shown to know how to use Blood Rage as well. Soul Edge takes the base form it took when Nico first transforms into Crimson Soul, but takes its true form after he regains his DDD ability and becomes Crimson Soul.

\- Default Form: a giant sword with demonic crimson flesh filling the blunt side of the blade. At the base of the hilt, there was a yellow slitted eye with one side of the sword featured a fleshy blade with a metallic edge.

\- True Form: still a massive Greatsword, but it lacks eyes, has 2 edges with the blade's middle being a row of long, pointed teeth. It has a semi-circular guard around the hilt that was shaped like a talon, with a shorter version opposite it.

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 **List of Skills:**

Skill Attacks are a seires of techniques Nico has developed himself over the series, but the Skill Attacks as a Concept are spread across the entirety of Gamindustri. Nico has many Skill attacks, ones which are reliant non an internal energy source called SP to use. Nico's SP Attacks are as follows:

 **Chains of Hephaestus** : A Skill that binds the target in chains from a Magic Circle that appears below the target's body. It lasts for as long as the wielder wishes, and can bind nearly any monster. The unfortunate downside is that it only works if a marker is magically drawn onto the target's body beforehand, and the weaker the monster is the easier it is to bind them, as well as the less it drains from the user.

 **Phantom Blades** : Nico jumped into the air and spreads his arms, a large magic circle appearing behind it. From it, large blades that looked almost transparent are fired like machinegun fire.

 **Phantom/Fang Wave** : A magic circle appears under his feet before Nico kicks like he's kicking a football, sending a wave of plasma purple energy at his opponent.

 **Phantom Edge** : A skill that coats Nico's weapon in energy that releases itself as an explosive energy slash when the attack is complete. Can cause knockback effects for the Monsters and other foes hit by it.

After gaining control of his DPU form, Nico develops new Skills that are reliant on his demonic energy to work. They are more powerful than his regular skills, however they take more energy for him to use, energy which could be used to power his DPU form. The Skills he has for demonic energy were as follows:

· **Demon Overdrive** – In this Skill, Nico is enveloped in a fiery aura made of his demonic energy, which pushes his body beyond its limits while also making sure that it would not damage Nico's body while active.

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 **Spirit Bones:**

Nico has access to Spirit Bones ever since he first fights a Butcher Demon in the Hellverse. So far, his Spirit Bones are:

Right Leg Bone - forms as a Boar's leg bone over his knee after he acquires it from a Butcher demon in the Hellverse Dungeon. It has 3 abilities:

 **Body Arming:** enhance the wielder's natural regeneration by 20%.

 **Voracious Eater:** Devours any form of offense, be it physical, mental, or any sort of energy. Can extend to entire beings (humans, monsters etc) and add their nutrients to the wielder. The amount drained varies, depending on the mental fortitude of its wielder and the difference between that and it's opponent.

 **Blockade:** Can seal away one Skill that the opponent uses. That Skill is the one that the enemy favors the most. It only lasts about 10 minutes before the Skill is returned to its owner, and even then, it can only hold one Skill at a time.

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 **Satanic Treasures:**

Red Ring of Rage - A crimson red ring the size of a basketball, one that hosts reservoir of rage equal to that of all of humanity. It enhances fire related abilities along with Demonic Power reserves via the rage it radiates passively. It is also capable of projecting rage onto other people, making them go berserk with rage.

Sin Multiplier (Wrath) – Nico's Sin Multiplier (which he obtains after fighting against Okada Izou, a legendary swordsman of whom he is a descendant of), is the Sin Multiplier of wrath which manifests over the area where his heart is as a dragon circling a full 360 degrees and biting its own tail, which earns him the nickname the 'Dragon Sin of Wrath'. This sin multiplier, whenever activated upon him manually activating it with Demonic Power or accumulating emotions tied to Wrath, allows Nico to have increased destructive power. In essence, it raises his offensive powers based off how much wrath he feels towards a situation, though there seems to be a base increase amount by a single DPU Rank. This power boost only lasts about 5 minutes however, and afterwards it has to wait for about 4 hours till it can be used again.

Green Ring of Hatred – A Shimmering green ring with Arabian designs etched into it, whilst sporting a lighter green coloured aura. The Green Ring of Hatred, or Green Hatred Ring, is a companion ring to the Rings of rage and hope, possessing a planet's worth of pure hatred within it. It was said to have been found in a Northmen camp in Leanbox, and it seemed to have turned every living being in a 20-mile radius, though this was an estimate only, completely mad with hatred. Unlike the Red Rage Ring however, this ring enhances Demonic Power only, as in it empowers anything that takes Demonic Power to use, not just Hellfire. This is largely due to how hatred can be blind, therefore indiscriminate. In addition, even whilst it radiates hatred in a passive manner, it also projects its hatred onto others just like the Red Rage Ring and the Blue Hope Ring. Its power is also very much stackable with the Red Rage Ring, thus when used together their effects are considered much greater.

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 **DPU Transformation:**

Crimson Soul is the name of the DPU from Nico transforms into through DDD (Demon Drive Demonica). Crimson Soul is a power that is beyond reckoning, and is his most powerful weapon once he learns to control his power, while Nico's Kakuja is a close contender. When transformed into him, Crimson Soul becomes one of the greatest fighters in Gamindustri through a variety of reasons, although many still fear his power when unleashed, even Nico himself due to its sinister nature.

His DPU powers are enhanced by negative emotions, anger, sorrow, loneliness, despair. Most of all, though, rage was the primary emotion. Too make a comparison, everything else was like a short ripple in a pond made by a small pebble. However, rage was like a massive boulder crashing into the pond's surface, creating large waves of water that spread long distances.

During the Leanbox Arc, it is stated that Crimson Soul's full power would allow him to destroy an entire continent with a swing of Soul Edge in its true form, a form exclusive to Crimson Soul Post Berzerker Mode. However, afterwards his power increases to where he could, at full strength, destroy several continents at once which only makes this power all the more dangerous.

 **Appearance** :

Once transformed, Nico becomes a grown man standing at 8 feet. His red hair turns charcoal black while his light blue eyes become crimson with black power button symbols. His body is covered in orangish red armour, as well as a fleshy skin-tight suit. The head of his armour covered much, save for his eyes, which were seen through empty holes in the helmet, and the helmet had a large crest-like shape, with the muzzle AKA the mouth bare to expose his mouth. The chest, shoulders, arms, legs and waist were all completely armoured, everywhere else being covered by a fleshy skin-tight suit. The armour had an orangish red sheen to it, with the hands being shaped into clawed Gauntlets with spikes coming out the elbows. More spikes protruded from the shoulder guards and the knees. On the chestplate there was a glowing yellow core of energy, as well as matching veins that spread across the man's body. out the back of the man's tailbone, was a long, segmented crimson red Tail, the same length as his height. Out his upper back was a pair of flaming wings like a Phoenix's, shaped like the namesake, and reached down to its feet which had several long talons protruding out of the front, 1 extra from the heel. He radiates a powerful orangish red aura which is his Demonic energy flooding through his system.

 **Weapons** :

 **Soul Edge** – Crimson Soul's weapon, but most certainly not the weakest. It is a demonic sword much like the ones his human form wields, however it is significantly more powerful and has high variation in its abilities. It has a varied amount of abilities that stem from the eye at the hilt's base, such as forming and releasing Fireballs from the tip, beams that are released from the metallic edge once its coated in flames that home in on their target, as well as unleashed a fiery trail of flames along the ground that stretches to over 30 feet tall. Once Nico's Hellfire powers are fully unlocked, they can be applied to Soul Edge for increased attack power.

· Shapeshifting – Depending on the style of combat Crimson Soul wishes, Soul Edge can change its form to suit its master's needs. It can turn into a series of deadly weapons for various situations, these weapons being:

1\. Hammer – In Hammer form, Soul Edge manifests a long, crimson shaft made from demonic flesh, small slitted eyes scattered through the shaft save for the hardened chitin grips. Its end is reminiscent of a single-ended bushing hammer, with a rear end shaped like a twisted, wicked curved claw. Between the two ends is a large slitted eye, while demonic growth keeps the metallic ends attached to the shaft.

2\. Cleaver – Soul Edge takes the form of a two-handed Cleaver, rivalling its base form in length. Its main blade is organic and crimson, with its Eye located at the end of the weapon, while it sported a multi-curved metallic edge for slashing.

3\. Dual Swords – Both swords had the same fleshy grips, with handguards that had human skulls built in, their heads sporting curved demonic horns that curved around the fleshy hilts. Above the skulls were wide open eyes, akin to Soul Edge's large sword-like form. The sides of the handguards were crimson chitinous fingers merged together to form a pair of demonic wings, with the main blades protruding from the base of the Skulls' chins. Each blade was an identical length of a sword, composed mostly of crimson metal but had fleshy interiors.

4\. Sword/Shield – Soul Edge manifests as a demonic crimson Shield with a single slitted eye at the top, with two demonic wings protruding from the sides. Soul Edge also manifests a longsword-shaped sword with a single eye on the hilt's centre. Two large wings protruding from both sides while its blade had a wide base, but narrowed all the way to the tip.

5\. Axe – In Axe form, Soul Edge becomes a two-handed Axe with two blades on its end, each blade sporting double ends. The blunt sides of the blades are fleshy, with metallic edges, with 1 eye each at the base of the blades. The shaft is crimson red and chitinous.

6\. Bow – As a Bow, Soul Edge's power focuses more on ranged attacks, leaving the wielder open for close combat. However, that is only if the weapon lets them get close enough, for in this form Soul Edge forms crimson harpoon shaped arrows from it's flesh while the string is pulled back, arrows that can be empowered with Hellfire for added damage. The damage these arrows do normally, is rivalling to the shell of a Tankl's main gun. When they were released however, that's when their true power is shown. The longer the distance between the arrow and target, the stronger the Arrows become as the energies inside them accumulate, leading to them being potentially able to level entire buildings or armies from a safe distance. In this form, Soul Edge has the form of a traditional Longbow, but with demonic flesh for the base, an entrails-like string, and multiple eyes.

7\. Beyblade – When in this form, Soul Edge becomes a purely metallic 8-bladed Beyblade, with the blunt sides being a demonic red with the edges being silver. They form in layers of 2, and rotate in different directions for better cutting power. Soul Edge in Beyblade form, rotates so fast when thrown that it can warp space around it, making it incredibly difficult for people to block it. Not only that, but this form can split into 4 smaller versions, at the cost of rotating power, to attack from multiple angles.

8\. Gauntlets/Greeves – For CQC Purposes, Soul Edge can transform into a set of Gauntlets and Greeves. These cover his arms from the hands to the elbow and were shaped like a demonic Knight's, coloured orange. The hands have dark red chitinous curved talons, and the feet have 3 toed claws. They were purely metallic in design like the Beyblade, with the signature eyes on the back of the hands and on the sides of the calves. As an added bonus, the Greeves can deploy bone-like Chainsaws from the wrists, which constantly crackle with demonic energy, or any element Nico knows. As for the Greeves, they were built to kick pieces of mountain ranges away and not leave a mark, as well as sported crescent leg blades on the outside sides of the feet, which have the same abilities as the Chainsaws when deployed. When deployed, they flip from facing up to his waist to the direction the soles are facing.

9\. Ravager Mode – Against Maghda, Crimson Soul unleashes Soul Edge's Reaper Mode, something that he uses exclusively when he is in human form. When this is activated, Soul Edge's for manifests as four large wings, both shaped like a demonic crow and made from its fleshy growth. From the base of the spine, more growth forms a Tail with a bladed spear-like edge which as trhe signature eye of Soul Edge at the base and his arms have demonic growth spread over them, his fingers elongated into metallic, longsword-length claws.

· Telekinetic control – Crimson Soul can manipulate Soul Edge with his mind, making it attack by itself while he focused on other abilities. After the retrieval of IF Arc, this ability develops into one where Soul Edge can use telekinesis on the surroundings, including other weapons. It could move itself and act like a companion and not just like a weapon, attacking the enemy by itself while Nico/Crimson Soul uses different tactics. Though, this runs the weakness of not having access to some abilities like Uranai since its not within its wielder's grasp.

· Soul Eater – When defeating enemies, Soul Edge can devour their essence or souls, placing them within itself and condemning them to eternal torment that serves to increase its power. The more Souls it feeds on, the stronger it becomes. It can even take in multiple souls at a time.

· Devil's Blessing – Soul Edge infuses a large portion of its collective rage within its wielder, refuelling their energy reserves at the cost of it losing its own. This however, has the drawback of draining the user's stamina, thus Crimson Soul has to be wary of using this ability.

· Astral Plane – Soul Edge exists on more than just the physical plane of existence, it also exists on the Astral plane as well. This means that ordinary weapons cannot harm it unless they exist on such a plane as well.

· Scorching Aura – A debuffing ability. Soul Edge can brandish a fierce crimson glow around itself as a show of intimidation where its power radiates from it like a thick miasma of disease. The sight of this ability makes people question going up against it by drawing their gaze to its form like a magnet and forcing the image of its eye on them in to their minds, slowing down their mobility and decreasing their attack power.

· Predator – When faced with a powerful opponent, Soul Edge hungers for action, the stronger the opponent, the more power that it exerts through its form and its wielder. Therefore, the stronger the opponent, the stronger its power is multiplied by its own bloodlust. This also makes controlling it for his human form Nico increasingly difficult, however his mental fortitude thanks to his other Devil Arms assists him in handling the blade when this ability automatically activates. Another ability it has allows it to devour any energy/magic/demonic power-based attacks, using them to refuel its power.

· Blood Rage – Soul Edge's eye locks it's gaze onto the opponent, influences the target, shutting down their higher brain functions to disable their magic abilities while making them fight more like a berserker.

· Blutsucker – This ability can only be activated if and when the opponents weapon is touching Soul Edge. When activated, it releases large waves of demonic energy into its opponent, ripping trough them and causing moderate internal injuries.

· Akuma no Me (Eye of the Devil) – This ability is an active type, meaning Nico has to activate it himself. The Akuma no Me ability allows Soul Edge to 'look' into the enemy's soul and constantly feed the user information about the next move. This allows him time to come up with a means to counter, and as long as the ability remains active then Nico has knowledge of what the enemy plans to do before they've even decided on it. However, this ability is downgraded outside of its true form, only analysing one attack before the ability has to be activated again. When in Soul Edge's true form, this ability is permanently activated so Crimson Soul is constantly aware of the opponent's next move.

· True form – When going Berserker Mode for the first time, Soul Edge changes to its true form. In this form, Soul Edge's full power is unleashed, and every DPU Ability is radically increased in strength. After exposure to Berserker Mode, Soul Edge retains this form when used by Crimson Soul, however it can appear to his human form in its base Greatsword form, with all its abilities. Nico notes that Soul Edge was ten times more difficult and resilient to control in this state than any of his Devil Arms, however he displays great willpower in keeping it in line while he uses it. In this form, it's destructive power is intensified tenfold, whereas in it's weaker form it's power would be enough to cause craters at minimum, at best being able to small buildings, Soul Edge's true form can destroy large buildings like skyscrapers at minimum, and at max it could potentially level an entire continent. This changes at Halo Mountain after he defeats Okada Izou, gaining the destructive power to destroy multiple continents at once.

 **Wings** – the Flaming Phoenix Wings are also counted as a weapon for Crimson Soul. They act as if they are sentient, and can transform into a variety of offensive, and defensive forms

 **Powers and abilities:**

 **Hellfire** – Hellfire is the first element Crimson Soul is capable of using. Not much is known about them at first, but Crimson Soul is shown to be able to use it to form physical objects like arms to attack his enemies, as well as use it to enhance his swings. Hellfire can be launched as fireballs, waves, or any other form that can be imagined, and its flames are over 3000 degrees Celsius… in their un-awakened state, in their true form, the Hellfire flames are 5000 degrees Celsius. Before fully awakening, they formed as orangish red flames, but once they were fully awakened they turn black with a red outline. Nico's human form becomes capable of using the weaker Hellfire after the Hellverse Arc, while the true Hellfire remains solely with his DPU Form.

 **Warp** – The ability to 'Warp' is to teleport from one space to another. Warping can be activated on a second's notice, with Crimson Soul able to use it to escape tough attacks without a scratch at the last second. When activated, it appears as a devilish red spark, and when the user reappears it happens again. This ability can be automated at will, allowing the user to not care about getting caught off guard. However, it sports a limited range of 50 Meters, making it non-suitable for long-distance travel. It also can be predictable, due to the limited range it has.

 **List of Skills** :

· Fire Blast: Crimson Soul points the tip of his weapon at the enemy. Fiery trails gather at the tip that form a fireball, which is launched when Crimson Soul thrusts forwards. Upgraded when Hellfire is used.

· Atomic Inferno: Fiery trails coat the metallic part of Soul Edge, and when swung release a volley of 30 fiery homing rays that target what the user wishes. Best used on multiple targets. Upgraded when Hellfire is used.

· Fire Scorcher: Crimson Soul gathers energy from Soul Edge's eye and his wings in the form of fiery trails, then he places them above the tip of Soul Edge and forms a massive meteor of molten hot magma and rock. He then points his weapon at the enemy and the attack is sent hurling towards it.

· Magma Shot: Fiery trails come out of Soul Edge's eye and form 5 Fireballs in a star formation around the blade, which shoots them towards enemies.

· Viral Surge: A buff skill that acts like a Drive Skill, however it has the side effects of darkening the skin to a blackish colour with the eyes of the receiver becoming a crimson red, the same happening to their mouths. Those affected by it are also shown to have increased aggression for the duration of the Skill's effects.

· Infernity Edge: Crimson Soul dashes past his opponent with Soul Edge engulfed completely in flames. The flames make a flaming slash mark appear on the enemy, before he turns around and jumped into the air, the flames growing greater as flames are channelled into Soul Edge from his wings, making it enlarge to twice its original size. He brings it down, making a fiery implosion.

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 **Ghoul Side:**

The side of him that Nico constantly suppressed for a majority of the story, Nico's Ghoul Side is a side of him which is very animalistic in nature. It Is the reason for a lot of the problems he had faced and the trials he has had to overcome before the story begins. Nevertheless, one could say it is not weak by any means when compared to his Demonic powers such as his DPU Transformation or his Devil Arms. On the down side however, it is difficult to handle, not only that but it is responsible for Nico being unable to eat human food and makes him rely on the flesh of people or of monsters to keep him nourished.

 **Ghoul Physiology** \- As a Half Ghoul, Nico is stronger than normal Ghouls due to Hybrid Vigor, his Ghoul Physiology affords him to have incredibly sharp senses, allowing him to see better, hear further, smell better and to have just about every sense possible amplified. His Ghoulish instincts are also particularly sharp, which allow him to avoid danger most of the time making it quite difficult for anyone to get the drop on him. Only those stronger than him have a chance of doing this, but even then, because of his Ghoul Side having an abnormally large amount of RC (Red Child) Cells, Nico's healing factor has high potency, allowing him to regenerate from fatal injuries, making him a highly difficult foe to keep down.

 **Kagune (Rinkaku, Koukaku, Bikaku) -** The most threatening aspect of his Ghoul Side however, is his Kagune, which comes in theee forms. Each of them is unique, with their own characteristics and traits meant to diversify his options when using them. It also makes him a Chimera, an even greater oddity among One Eyed Ghouls. Due to his battle with Mundus, his Koukaku has been rendered unusable for the time being due to trauma.

 **Kagune type: Rinkaku and Bikaku**

· **Rinkaku** :

Nico's Rinkaku, is his most utilized aspect of his Kagune. It consists of 6 black Tentacles, blacker than darkness itself to the point where all light is sucked into them metaphorically. One of the more frightening abilities they have was that these Tentacles have the ability to turn invisible, due to both vibrations constantly circling through and emitting from them at high enough frequencies that they can no longer be seen with the 5 senses a person sported, and from Nico's psychological desires to hide his Ghoul side from the world. Though, he can make it visible at will by lowering the frequency to a level where the optic nerves can process it.

These Vibrations also however, are responsible for the Rinkaku's lethal offensive and defensive power. These vibrations weaken bonds at a molecular level, and thanks to their high frequencies this is done fast enough that it is reminiscent of a blade, allowing the Rinkaku to slice through most materials. Their strength is capable of slicing through large buildings at it's peak, making it a dangerous foe on the battlefield, along with how flexible a Rinkaku is. This flexibility allows it to be manoeuvred into attacks from any angle, making predicting where its going to attack from, especially when invisible, exceedingly difficult.

This isn't all to Nico's Rinkaku however, as while it specialises in stealth thanks to invisibility ability, Nico's also capable of manipulating his Rinkaku via shapeshifting. This is due to Nico's battle experience teaching him how to think on the fly, yet also be intelligent on the battlefield as well as on his opponents. This made him hit the books, increasing his intelligence and versatility with his Kagune's shape manipulation. He doesn't use this ability often though, due to few people being alive to record the experience after he unleashes his Kagune.

In addition, Nico has learned how to detach his Kagune and make it form various traps and objects, such as Kagune-based weaponry or web-like traps. The limit here is his imagination, and even then, it isn't much considering his established intelligence. His Rinkaku is also able to open it's 6 Tips, forming V shaped maws of crimson fangs and glowing hollow interiors reminiscent of pterodactyls to ingest flesh, along with single Kakugans while more Kakugans can open near their ends.

· **Bikaku:**

Nico's Bikaku Kagune manifests as up to 4 long, large grey Tails covered in grey Armour plates. These Tails have 6 long, thin blade-like Tips for stabbing and slashing purposes, while arrow-like Talons protruded from their sides. These appearances oddly resemble a Centipede.

Now, Nico's Bikaku Kagune specialises in Widespread annihilation. For not only does it's speed rival his Rinkaku, but its space-striking abilities rival that of his Koukaku. That means it has both these qualities intensified for its own purposes, a 'you may see them, but you cannot dodge them, you are too slow' kind of situation. In addition to this, the Bikaku can unleash its talons like Projectiles by whipping themselves in a certain direction and detaching them. These launch mechanisms combined with the Talons themselves, give them a strong enough force and impact to be able to go through large pillars in a highway. In essence, they are an equivalent to a pile of jet liners crashing into someone full force.

If that wasn't enough, this Bikaku has the ability to play the versatility game and split itself into 6 long, thinner versions of themselves each, and if Nico splits all four he gains 24 long, thin Tails with single blade tips and a single row of curving talons each. These Tails would slash for greater striking power and accuracy as they would be able to cover more angles than their larger forms. Each one moves at Mach 1.5 speed, and every one of them can release their Talons with just as much speed. Arguably, in these forms the Talons are stronger and faster than when they were in their bigger forms.

Regarding the Bikaku's Talons, when a set are released they take a couple minutes to reset, as Nico's regeneration is restoring those Talons. It is similar to the reloading of a Gun, though Nico's training has shortened this time considerably. In addition, he is able to release multiple sets of Talons at once in multiple directions, covering more ground so that his foes have a harder time dodging multiple sets of jetliners falling onto their faces.

Furthermore, when they hit something, it doesn't matter what, these Talons detonate and explode, sending shrapnel made from these Talons into their surroundings that make smaller explosions. This ensures that their enemies may have dodged the initial attack (even with how hard that is) but they will still no escape unscathed.

Each one has absurd gripping strength, able to form fanged maws on their forms to help them. This gripping strength is strong enough that the Bikaku can catch several bullet trains rushing at it in full force. This gripping strength is usually accented through wrapping around objects, although these maws can change that, and they have other methods of grabbing onto objects.

 **Kakuja** :

Nico, after so many years of cannibalising monsters instead of humans (with exceptions), has developed a Kakuja. In the past, it was an incomplete Kakuja, which he couldn't control and thus lost his sanity when it was used. In its incomplete state, the Kakuja formed a Centipede Mask over the top of his face, makeshift mandibles covering his eyes while the forehead had many Kakugans as replacements, varying in size. Two bone-like antennae protruded out the top of his head, reminiscent of demonic horns. Out his back, were 6 long Tentacles covered in black carapace, with crimson red Talons protruding from the sides and ending in equally crimson 3-clawed tips.

 ** _Things of interest_** :

Nico is a teenager with various scars, he is highly intelligent and capable but that came from excessive adversity growing up. It is to the point he was traumatized enough to not remember large portions of it. His half-ghoul state came from an experiment imposed on him long ago, it not only hurt him deeply he also lost contact with his family for a long while.

When he finally came back he was severely abused and hurt by his family members due to his current state of being a 'abnormal', one of the monsters in his world and a target for extermination.

In the end he was rescued by Helen, the woman who would become his step-mother, and she taught him most of what she knew of combat as she understood that he could not avoid fighting and that his potential was too good not to be used considering their world was in considerable problems.

He managed to become a Spec-Ops agent of the guild, a fighter that had to deal with the most troublesome of the situations, and he fought and saved an untold number of people. But thanks to his status as half-ghoul and his serious trust issues he never partied with others, until he accidentally did with Neptune, IF, and Compa.

He now, after a lot of problems and wake-up calls that almost spelled the death of all his loved ones, finally started accepting more is Ghoul side which he sees as a white version of himself that he calls White Nico.

Another thing of interest is that his Demonic powers were obtained by accident, but even so they are now a vital part of who he is and these powers have developed a 'personality' of sorts. It is somewhat similar to his powers coming with a self-explanatory program that gained consciousness, its name is Biko and he is something like a mentor to Nico about his demonic aspects.

Other thing of relevance is that he has a mindscape, there the time flow at a different speed than normal and he uses it to train everything quickly.

But he Seriously has trust issues and problem in believing people to any degree.


	86. cross-over chap 1

**Demon meets the King**

Nico's P.O.V.

The moment that his eyes opened again...

Nico could honestly not have any clue where the hell he was.

'What the... what the hell...?' Nico wondered to himself, blinking several times before he held his head in one hand. He could feel a headache coming on, and if the male was feeling a headache right now, the teen figured it was to do with the sudden teleporting he had just experienced. 'Ugh, seriously when the hell do these moments ever end... darn that guy... he didn't give me any time to react...' the redhead male thought irritably, a low grumble escaping his lips whilst his eyes shone with irritation. The male should have probably written a book, a book about the people he got pissed off towards the most, and put Zelretch into those upper ranks.

Perhaps he could have put him up in the 3rd place, 2nd being Yvoire for his discrimination against Spec Ops and 1st for Mundus thanks to his... actions, against his Ghoul side.

Though, his mind then wandered over to MAGES. and his irritation got a new friend in the surge of worry that blossomed within his chest. Now, whilst Nico wouldn't judge her for who she had taken as a teacher, he had to wonder if her meeting Zelretch had been one of MAGES.' few regrets in her life. Seriously, the guy seems like someone who could cause no small amounts of trouble, destroyed sanity for shits and giggles, not to mention that he had perverted tendencies. Those were big down points there, as far as he was concerned.

On the other hand, the amount of raw power that the redhead had found within the man, it was DEFINITELY something to take note of. Out of all the Mages that he had fought over the years, none of them came CLOSE to a fraction of the power that man wielded. It was like he came from a whole new league of Mages, Mages who knew how to kick ass and take names themselves. Not just with their magics, either like the majority of the Mages he had been used to. If someone like THAT guy existed, then what else was there?

 **'Well, whatever the case, it does seem like we are not anywhere we have previously been anymore...'**

When he heard the voice of his Demon Persona echo through his mind, Nico blinked owlishly as his irritation from before practically vanished from his mind. That got replaced with curiosity and confusion as he finally looked around at his surroundings, finding himself within this large, open space. 'This space...' the male thought as his eyes beheld it, searching through it like a lighthouse in the midst of a super storm for anything out of place. 'This place... it feels like... I dunno. But I thought it felt similar to my Inner World for some reason. What the hell is this place?'

To be honest, this entire place felt...barren. Empty. Not quite lifeless though, but for some reason the teen couldn't put his finger on why that was. It felt more like a place that was in-between dead and alive, kind of like a deserted planet which a god or a creator of life had not yet settled on to make anything on it yet. A place ripe for the taking, one could say. The teen hummed to himself whilst he thought about it, holding his chin in a detective-like manner whilst the other remained pocketed inside his Trench Coat.

Oh yeah, he had his original appearance back, the male realized after a moment, a figurative light bulb switching on over his head when he looked himself over. 'Well... at least the guy kept his word about keeping me normal... I won't ask myself why he did that though, the guy feels like he would troll me as soon as I start thinking it. Say, Biko, can you detect anything around this place?'

 **'I can detect a mybrid of things, Nico. I can sense powerful energies making up the terrain here, energies that I can't make heads or tails of. Odds are, this place is like an** **artificial** **island, only on a much greater scale. I seem to recall that there were** **rumors** **about making those for Civilians so they can live their lives peacefully whilst he military forces remain on the mainland, so they can fight these invading enemies.'**

Biko's words made Nico think back to a rumor he had heard once about that, the creation of Artificial Islands. It was an old rumor, multiple years old if he wasn't mistaken. The goal was to isolate the civilians on these large islands, made by artificial means with only normal wildlife for sustenance, among other supplies. One could call them these small towns that dot the main large Landmasses. They would remain there, and repopulate so that they could send new recruits to the Military forces so they can keep their numbers up to fight the Abnormals, now the Demons and other foreign enemies too, until they could regain their mainlands. However, something like that hadn't been implemented, though Nico didn't know why. Maybe he could look into that during his free time, maybe it was just a rumor, a false one.

Then, Nico's thoughts got interrupted by more words from Biko, and these ones caused his lips to become a firm thin line.

 **'In any case, I also detect something nearby. Its... strong, I can definitely say that, not to mention it feels like a life form... be wary Nico, for I can sense a POWERFUL, yet unknown energy within this life form. It feels oddly enough like a mix of... Goddess and Demon God, though one side seems to be weaker than the other. Like something had damaged it to the point of it becoming fractured. In military terms, caution is advised.'**

'Hmmmm... alright, i'll be wary, then.' Nico replied with a resolute nod, pocketing both hands in his Trench coat before he began moving towards the location of this unknown energy. He didn't have many leads on what it could be, but the word 'Godson' Zelretch had said stuck in his mind. Perhaps this was his Godson? He wasn't sure, but he wasn't willing to discard that theory. Part of him also checked Soul Edge's progress to recovery whilst he walked, and found that it had been restored to 60% already. His soul was at 75%, something that completely blew his mind. 'Okay, WHAT the hell?! How the hell is Soul Edge recovering so quickly?!And my Soul! How the hell?! I thought that...!'

Blinking, Nico scowled to himself as a theory came to him before Biko could respond. It had to be something to do with that dual-natured energy he sensed over this area. Its 'evil' feels like it could corrupt him, but his body knew this so it devised an absorption method to safely prevent those risks, therefore restoring his Soul faster thanks to negative emotions pretty much being his lifeblood. He felt like, once he reached the source of this energy, he'll have regained the use of most of his Demonic Weapons, though depending on circumstances Soul Edge might not be able to fight still. It wasn't a bad theory considering what he knew about his powers so far, but he doubted that it would have much of an effect on his Ghoul side.

Shaking his head, Nico gave a low hum of approval before he continued on.

* * *

5 minutes later (it must have been another troll by Zelretch to deposit him so far into this place, seriously...), Nico finally found the source...

And it was NOT what he expected.

Before him, Nico found himself staring at what he could only describe as a mass of bodies. all piled up on top of each other. Nico could hardly recognize the creatures that they once were, as they seemed to have been massacred... rather brutally and messily at that. Nico almost found himself impressed at the level of brutality displayed here, his Ghoul instincts definitely approved in any case. The pile itself seemed to be as large as a two story building, though, which forced Nico to look up towards the top with his hands in his Trench Coat Pockets.

There, he could only see a figure, sitting down atop the piles like a king sitting on a throne made entirely out o his servants, looking out into the distance. Judging by his stance, Nico figured that he wasn't aware that the redhead male was down here, since he sat and looked like he was looking to the side. He couldn't make out much about the person, but he could see a mass of blonde hair on top of its head, and facial features which designated the figure as a male. Probably his age, maybe older. The angle too, allowed Nico to use his Ghoul enhanced eyes to see that the guy had heterochromatic eyes, one eye colored different from the other. How the hell was that a thing for this guy? Did he have any problems with his sight? Part of him couldn't help but wonder about that, thinking back to several Agents he knew with heterochromic eyes but had specific eyesight issues.

Taking a sniff of the air, Nico frowned when he smelled faint traces of this strange metallic substance, his Ghoulish nose identifying them to be coming from his arm and eye, though which one would be questioned for a while in his mind. In addition to that, he could sense a LOT of holy energy in those areas, almost as if the arm and eye were made not by human hands, but that of a Goddess or an Angel. Still, even with all this (plus the sensation of sucking something in that came from him drawing negative emotions) Nico felt like he had found his target, though he wanted another opinion on the matter just to be on the safe side.

'Biko, this the source of that energy?'

 **'Indeed, the source is coming from this person. Judging by this Zelretch character's words, I believe this may be the 'Godson' that he had mentioned. Do not underestimate him, Nico, for I sense a large amount of power inside of him. Its like I'm looking at another you, but more of a dual nature like Neptune is slowly becoming thanks to Soul Calibur.'**

'Alright then, thanks...'

Leaning on one foot, Nico kept his eyes narrowed up at the top of the pile, before he shouted out to inform the guy of his presence.

"Am I right to assume you are the Godson that crazy old timer mentioned?"

* * *

Castiel's POV

In the area uncle Zelretch prepared I could finally let lose. Normally I tried to avoid unnecessary killing, but after all the s*** I've been through these last few days I NEED to let lose for a bit.

I mean, first I am pulled in a fight that should have no relations to me, next I lose my freaking arm and one of my eyes, have to suffer more than I ever believed possible, had been captured to be a 'guest' (which is a fancy way of saying prisioner) by Heaven, had to deal with the whole Serenity situation (which was admittedly nice, her lips are delicious for sure), and finally had to meet that person.

To say I have too much on my plate is probably the understatement of the century. I had to get stronger to a point where things start going back to my control instead of just being thrown around like that again as well as to ensure that I would not be letting my loved ones and friends be wounded under my watch.  
Seriously, merely thinking about it makes me irritated and I need to put all this pent up energy into something, anything really.

That is why that I feel great now that I am using my bare hands to pierce through the body of a monster and take away its still beating heart, I just need to find some way to let lose.

But to be honest, this is getting a bit numb. Destroying monsters is great and all, but after the first two hundred it lose some of its charm. I need more to stimulate myself to let my head out of these annoying thoughts.

It was at this moment that I just finished up all the monsters that I feel uncle's presence as well as another person.

Looking at him from the distance I am slightly disappointed, he looks like what a chuunibyou kid would dress up in Halloween as far as I am concerned. Also, I can clearly feel that his energy is weird to say the least.

It is like demonic energy, but more refined and at the same time corrupted. Someone with this type of power inside should be quite strong, but the more I feel his energy the more I can't help but feel disappointed.

The way he moves is refined, constant vigilance in his eyes, but his energy has near zero actual control. He is closer to a mad bull that don't know what to do, had plenty of power but fails to live up to expectations.

Siting down on the mountain of corpses I see him approaching and he finally notices me. My white suit still immaculate as it has an auto cleaning and repair function and as I stood up I can clearly feel my power being revitalized to its peak in a fast pace.

"Am I right to assume you are the godson of the crazy old timer?" The male asked, and I had to put on a serious face with force to not explode in laughter.  
Leave it to uncle Zelretch to make anyone think of him as a crazy guy in a matter of moments.

Walking down from the pile of corpses I finally approach him enough to make up some of the finer details of his body. He is quite handsome, even if I honestly am better, his muscles also seem strong and he feels like a warrior. Maybe his lack of control is due to never needing to overly control his energy? Or perhaps he was never taught how to truly master his powers?

I know quite a bit about demonic powers due to my studies about devils, so I know that pure strength is something that most devils work with but to really reach the peak they need control even more so. To think uncle said he had similar level of potential to me but he wasting it away like this, it sort of irritates me as I had to work my a** off to get anywhere with training due to my difficulties.

He also clearly is not a human, even though he seems to want to pretend he is. What a weird guy.

"So you are the one uncle Zelretch said had potential equal to mine, huh? I expected something different, not a f*** demon mixed with monster." I said, and I mean it. A monster and a demon generally would never breed, their natures too violent to allow for such a thing. Much less produce progeny as generally stronger monsters and demons have low birth rates to a point where it takes years, maybe decades, before a progeny for either to be born.

Oh wait, looking at his face it is clear to see his shock over my words. Is he surprised that I figured out what he is? I mean, his powers are so clear that NOT realizing it just means that the person is a d*** who never trained. This is probably one of the very first things people should train in, identifying the strength and race of others is essential to guaranty a greater chance of survival so not knowing that is ridiculous.

Seeing him get all jumpy I showed a slight smile before continuing. "Calm down, did you not know how to feel the species of others with just your feeling? It is like magic 103 right after opening magic circuits and understanding how magic works, it is an necessary skill when talking to others after all."

And it is, it is one of the first things anyone would learn when training. It is common knowledge of my dimension after all and… he is not from my dimension.  
Sheesh, to think people from other dimensions would not even know such a basic skill and be surprised by it, next you will say that his word doesn't even use magic or some ridiculous thing like that. Oh s***, I almost forgot.

"F***, I almost forgot my manners, my name is Castiel. Castiel Emyia, heir to the Tohsaka Tower."

* * *

"My name is Nico, no last name since those don't mean nothing to me. Spec Ops Agent."

The tension was high as both males started seriously looking over one another.

Nico now that was closer could take a better look at Castiel. He had broad shoulders, a big but not bulky physic that clearly showed experience in battle, tan skin (something is rarely seen in his own world), wore a white coat and suit with details in golden and the world Protect in the back, but the most notable things about him are still his eyes. The left one was an extremely deep color of black, almost like the moonless and starless night while his other one was a deep golden that made him think of pure gold, it should look bad but he made it work somehow very well. His features were also quite handsome and he carried himself with a confidence that Nico has only seen on some of the big leaders of corporations or big nobles that actually cared for their nation and those beneath him, an instinctive sense of superiority without considering others weak, a sense that he knew where he was going to go and he should lead others.

A bearing that made Nico associate him with kings of old, to those who were born as kings. And Nico did not like that. His instincts as both DPU and Ghoul demanded him to be the 'alpha male' in all situations so seeing someone who felt like a king made Nico want to pull him down and put him beneath his feet as a show of his superiority.

Thing was, just from the very first second Nico felt like this guy was looking down on him. The reason for that wasn't just because of his words just now, but also due to his expressions and demeanour… and it immediately rubbed him the wrong way. From where Nico had been standing, the blonde guy in the white suit looked like the type of person who could see the flaws in people and demeaned them for it. Pretty much a common dickhead but with the power to back it up, something which sent a wave of irritation through his being. Nico could sense the disgusting sin of pride just rolling off him in waves, similar to the stuff he got from Mundus before. He could feel his Devil Arms wanting to shut his gob up on principle. The guy's white suit reminded him of the businessmen from Lastation so that didn't help his case.

The fact that he had caught on to Nico being a Hybrid of DPU and Ghoul (though likely not the specifics) somewhat surprised him, but mostly because Nico wasn't used to people figuring it out so quickly. Using Masks and all that. If this guy could do it faster tan the majority of the human population back in his world, then just how idiotic were they?

'Now that I'm closer, I can feel his energy. Both of them are unbalanced like two bricks on a weight scale, one is weaker than the other... but on the other hand, his energy feels like a sword sheathed in its scabbard, unlike mine which just chaotically roars constantly. Mine would be more like a blade without a scabbard in comparison.' The male thought, his lips set into a flat line as he regarded the blonde haired teen. Already, plans and thoughts circulated through his mind on his possible powers and how he could overcome them, like a predator observing its prey for weaknesses. His Ghoul side started to growl inside him, eagerly awaiting the chance to come out and rip into him.

Meanwhile, Castiel too noticed above all else about Nico's sins and instincts. He could see it with his left eye, the amount of blood Nico spiled was truly gigantic but more importantly, he noticed how he had a deep demonic and monstrous powers trying to manipulate him. It looked almost like a curse, but the powers and things he saw were the same as Nico which made Castiel reach a conclusion.

Nico was weak. Not physically, but mentally. He had seen before people that obtained great powers but could not handle then so instead made 'personas' to care for it, an escape mechanism of sorts that can be made subconsciously sometimes giving the person the impression that it is other beings while still being fully him. It is a mark of how he did not know what to do and is trying to fool himself, a mark of mental weakness.

Someone like that may easily, depending on the situation, do things that should not be done since it is 'other people's fault' or something stupid like that. It is not even accepting his own weakness and instead tries to find some sort of excuse and limiting himself from growing further, something Castiel could not accept. As someone who fought for years with all he had for the chance of growing at all but was denied that seeing people deny themselves power subconsciously was a disrespect for those who could not grow.

So, his image of Nico was falling by the second the more he looked at him.

"I am sorry if this may seen out of nowhere, but are you really all that strong? It is not to offend you or anything, I just don't see how you can help me in this trials right now." Castiel said while looking down at Nico. Independent of how strong he might be if Nico was mentally problematic Castiel would rather fight alone instead, it was safer than having a crazy beast that was failing in hiding his killing intent for a while now. He'd rather not have to deal with any sort of attack on his back, thank you very much.

...

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... Oh, he did NOT just say that.

It took a large amount of Nico's willpower to keep his emotions from showing on his features, though his ears twitched slightly. Something Castiel noticed but didn't comment on. 'Oh, he did NOT just say what I think he said!' the male roared mentally,, his patience wearing thin as well as his Ghoul Instincts being sent into a frenzy. He had had it up to here already with Zelretch's shenanigans, they had tested the male's temper with what he had done to MAGES., though he had successfully reined himself in before anything regretful could happen. But to hear this guy demean him like that, even if he didn't mean to insult him, really made him just want to lose it and just destroy everything around him. It was only through sheer willpower (plus some chanting in his head) that he had not fallen to those instincts.

'COME ON KING, SHOW HIM THE FUCK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE INSULTED LIKE THAT! THIS MOCKERY CANNOT STAND! HE MUST DIE, HE MUST HAVE HIS ORGANS RIPPED OUT, TO HELL WITH CONSEQUENCES!'

 **'Normally, I would not hesitate to disagree with your Ghoul side on these matters, but right now would be a decent time to make an exception. Someone just spoke down to you even though they have no clue what you have went through. They haven't seen the things that you have seen, they haven't had to do the things you do on a daily basis. However, we must not act rashly, for that is the quickest way to an early grave, even for a DPU such as yourself. Lets learn about this 'companion' of ours and see if he can bite like he barks. Initially, we should hold back a bit for our assessment. If he is killed then we may have to face off against the wrath of Zelretch, which would be catastrophic.'**

Both his Aspects agreed with him on this one, and as such Nico took a deep calming breath, steadying the rage that flowed through him and tempered it so he could think logically. Right now wasn't the time for him to beast out yet, not when things would be considered 'civil' right now. Glancing to the side, the male's eyes narrowed, causing the blonde Heir to arch a brow. "If you wish to know whether or not I am strong enough, I could just say that I am. Though I doubt that would completely quell any doubts you may have." Nico replied, evenly. He then gestured to the space near them, one that looked relatively free from monster corpses. "Therefore... how about we go over there and let actions do the talking? Actions speak louder than words." he suggested.

Castiel looked at the space, and weighed the options in his mind. He still had plenty of energy to spare, as he had the time needed to rest and regain his power from that bit of 'stress relief' which he called the massive slaughter that he had committed. In addition, a wave of annoyance swelled within him at the rather 'savage' suggestion Nico had offered. Some words of reassurance wouldn't have quelled all of Castiel's doubts true enough. He was a leader after all, he had to be absolutely SURE that he could rely on those he fought alongside to watch his back. However, that annoyance was also mixed with something else...

He soon felt what that was when he felt... something, pulse within him. 'Hm? What the?' the Heir thought when he mentally scanned himself. He soon found out what was wrong though, when he sensed a familiar tug within from a certain weapon of his. 'Clarent? What are you...?' he wondered, before he looked to where Nico was standing and waiting for is answer. His eyes lit up in understanding afterwards when eh sensed a surge of demonic power within. He had seen that there were two power sets within Nico's body, one of them being that of a monster, and the other that of a Demon. However, he didn't think that this demon and monster power was anything like the ones from his world, as they both felt unnaturally strong. Plus, there was something in his Demon powers which seemed to resonate with Clarent, something which dared to challenge its rule as the king. It wanted to meet that something head on in a clash, just like the heroic spirits of old did in their first lives. 'Clarent must see something I don't, which it wants to fight... Well then, that makes this MUCH more interesting.

On Nico's side, the redhead male wasn't unknowing of this feeling either, as he felt something resonating within Soul Edge itself. It was like hearing the warning growls of a predator, a predator which had found itself within another predator's domain. Something about this Castiel Emiya Character made it want to fight him, to bring it out so Soul Edge could utterly crush it under its monstrous blade. It wanted to absolutely crush everything about it, not just it, but everything it represented, its ideals, its pride, its existence as a weapon. This... agitation within the blade itself, Nico felt its recovery rate skyrocket thanks to its own bloodlust, boundless rage and overflowing hatred enhancing it. It would not be long now until the sword would be at its full power and glory once again, but until then... Nico would have to wait, distract Castiel until the time was right.

"Well?"

"Very well then. Lets get this over with. Follow me, I know a better place." Castiel replied, hopping off the corpse he stood on before walking away. Nico made to follow him, when he looked at the pile of corpses... and an idea struck him. 'Biko, do you sense any of that energy in those corpses?' he thought to his Demon Persona, who answered.

 **'I do, unfortunately. However, I do believe that your idea may provide benefits to us later in the future, especially with our ability to resist certain attributes. I will monitor them closely, and I will inform you when it would be best to stop what you're planning.'**

Nico nodded at this and, unbeknownst to Castiel, released a little something special, something which EAGERLY devoured the corpses around them with the blood included. He reached about 3/4's of the way before Biko told him to stop, when he did. Unfortunately, it appeared that something had gotten to them first, because when they devoured the corpses the two noticed how there was literally NOTHING in them. No blood, nor energy, as if something had already devoured them first. Something which had to have existed within Castiel, the redhead Spec Ops Agent figured. With an increasing annoyance, Nico followed the young Heir to where they would be fighting.


	87. cross-over chap 2

3° Person P.O.V.

The two young men took their distance. Both wanting to know just how powerful their 'ally' was strength wise.

For a moment, neither of them dared to make a move, gauging each other intensely while an ominous tension erupted in the air. On Castiel's side, he could sense the power within his opponent's body, heavily suppressed right now but that could change at any time.

And on Nico's side, he could sense a... rather strange mix of energies within his foe that befuddled him. It was like a DPU and CPU had merged together or something, only this felt... weirdly different.

The first to move was Nico.

He took out his primary Devil Arm: Rebellion and launched himself at Castiel at high speeds. He practically became a blur, making any form of visual perception of him incredibly difficult. Rebellion: a massive Claymore with a heavy double-edged blade, notched on both sides near the tip. The pommel was a plain one, with a plain grip, but the guard is skeletal, with a skull-design on each side leading to the rib cage from which the blade emerged; on one side of the blade, the skull is that of a human, while the other uses a horned demon's skull. Lastly was the cross guard that was folded inward against the Ribs of the blade. The blade had a static aura around it, HF Technology having been outfitted into the blade itself to give it an increased damage effect. Both its edges were constantly crackling to enhance its dangerous appearance. Plasma energy canisters are on the bottom of the grip as a secondary energy source.

After his first DPU Transformation though, it had transformed into its true form, having tasted the Demonic Power during its first awakening. The cross guard had extended into a V shape instead of gripping the ribs. The skull, instead of being half human half demon, had turned into a demonic horned screaming skull. The spike crown at the bottom of the hilt had split open into separate like a makeshift crown. The HF Technology remains tough, something that Nico was relieved about upon seeing. Ever since, it is used more for enhancing its slashing power rather than creating extra attacks like static slashes, that being usurped by demonic energy attacks instead.

'Fast!' was what Castiel thought before he moved his hand moving at high speed to create a line of runes, launching fireballs at Nico.

Not one of them would hit, however, as the teen would use a series of parkour stunts like flips, spins, hops, skips etc to evade them while closing in on his opponent. For Nico those fireballs were not particularly threatening, he faced way faster and hotter flames before.

In less than four seconds Nico was upon Castiel, he still was not that impressed. Castiel could launch those fireballs fast, true, but it still was simply too far from enough to actually mean he could even be close to a Spec-Ops Agent like himself.

Maybe Nico was worrying too much and those weird energy readings Biko warned him of was just a mistake. Still, best to keep it in mind if something suddenly happens...

Like what happened next, for example.

When Nico was less than three meters from Castiel he heard Castiel say his first loud words since the beginning of the fight.

" **Weak** " And with that, Nico felt it, something slammed onto his shoulders like a large weight that left Nico feeling much weaker than normal. His movements and power dropped considerably and taking advantage from that Castiel jumped back, but not before he planted a rune using the sole of his feet.

'So, THAT's the energy that Biko warned me about...'

He could feel his demonic powers burning away at the curse, his regeneration beginning to take away its effects. Because of the nature of its effect, his regeneration wouldn't be as fast as normal, Nico noticed, but he didn't focus on that due to noticing an energy spike in the Rune.

From that rune multiple pillars of ice sprouted, trying to impale Nico.

Mentally, the teen rolled his eyes at the attack. If he thought that this attack or that previous instance of that weird energy would stop him, then Castiel would be sorely mistaken. Moving faster than the eye could see Nico used Rebellion to slice all the ice pillars.

'Okay, this is a bit better.' Nico thought. He wanted a strong ally here, who knows what he would be facing and while doing it alone would be more interesting it would still be a tad more difficult. And even IF he wanted to go alone that weird guy already said they should go together, and considering how that Zelretch could probably destroy him and his whole dimension in no time flat if he wanted to, it would be for the best to listen to him.

After Castiel took his distance he completed a spell he was casting at high speeds and low volume. A total of eight magical spheres of energy appeared around him, it was a magical bombardment that Caster preferred.

As Nico felt the energy spiking in those energy spheres, the teen furrowed his brows, eyes glinting darkly as he swiftly activated one of his Skills: a quick PHANTOM WAVE was launched from his leg when he kicked diagonally, followed by several more. This resulted in the two attacks colliding with each other and resulting in a large explosion.

BOOM!

Meanwhile, thanks to having gotten a breathing time from the explosion, Castiel started releasing his cursed dragon tooth warriors. Until the fight against Kokabiel, those warriors were pathetically weak, fragile and the curse they could carry was not strong enough, but now that the seal on Castiel was broken things changed. The seal not only blocked his angelic powers but also did the same with his powers over evil and curses, and now that the seal was gone Castiel's puppets were many more dangerous since they now released a continuous miasma that cursed those who breathed it while also being agiler now and the curse they could individually carry being that much stronger.

These warriors broke through the smoke, charging towards Nico who looked surprised at them. His senses informed him of how dangerous those things were, as they carried a similar energy around them to that moment of weakness earlier. 'Best not let them get too close... and I have the perfect weapon to do that...' he thought, switching Rebellion out in a flash of power, for his next weapon of choice: the Scythe Harvester. The Scythe had a jagged, wing-like blade with multiple spikes coming out the main edge, its colour was black, with the wing-like blade being black where the fingers were and red where the 'webbing' would have been.

The weapon oozed power and darkness, perfect for what he had in mind while Castiel noticed the Scythe's power. He didn't know why, but something told him to NOT let that Scythe hit him or it'd hurt something FIERCE.

Those concerns soon became more founded when, channeling the Devil Arm's power, Nico slashed in a wide arc of darkness spraying across the ground and forming 2 large, scorpion/wolf-like Hybrid creatures. Their bodies looked mostly like Wolves of black fire that emitted darkness, cloaking them in it. At least reaching up to Nico's waist in size while being the length of 1 meter. Their eyes burned like dark violet flames, with their teeth being as long as short swords and their mouths having glowing violet interiors. They each had long Scorpion Tails with violet stingers coming out their behinds though, with Scorpion legs coming out their backs that would extend and retract like whips, each leg ending in single violet talons. Their main arms would have elongated dark violet metal claws instead of paws, while their hind legs would be that of normal Wolves.

He had enough time to use this ability: SHADOW PACK, several times to build up his forces to 60, of which he felt was enough so Nico commanded them to charge at the other force heading their way. Upon gazing at the approaching miasma-covered warriors, they each acted like their namesake and howled, bursting into mad sprints as they charged at each other. The two sides ripped into each other, tearing into each other with reckless abandon. While the Miasma energy would have cursed Nico's forces, they were much larger in number so the weakness wouldn't matter as much. In the end, these forces destroyed each other, leaving their masters alone on the battlefield.

Nico wouldn't let that stand, however...

Engaging a TELEPORT SLASH with Harvester, Nico appeared right behind Castiel with a slash aimed at his back. The other boy quickly dashed ahead, avoiding the strike by a very small margin and the turned around while muttering another Spell, launching a gust of wind at Nico who smashed it with Harvester's power.

"Looks like you have some impressive toys there." Castiel said.

"I would say the same to you." Nico answered.

"But how about we take up a notch?" Castiel said.

Wondering what Castiel meant Nico almost failed to react when the Castiel dashed to him to engage in close combat.

'What the hell?' Nico thought, he never even heard of a mage that would try to take the fights to close combat so this action was completely unexpected. But, Nico still was a well-trained warrior and as such reacted to the sudden shift in time to put Harvest in front of his chest to protect himself.

BAMG

When the punch connected Nico was launched a distance, the power clearly much greater than anything he expected. But before he could try to move and attack Nico was again bombarded by the magic attacks from Castiel.

"SHIT!"

Nico was forced to use Harvester to teleport a distance away.

'Okay, close combat doesn't seem that good of an option unless I use either my Ghoul side or the DPU transformation, but what about long distance?' Nico thought and following that he used Harvest continuously to move at a 'safe distance' of Castiel. Nico then changed weapons to his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. Those two were designed as M1911 handguns chambered for .45 ACP rounds. They had pivot triggers, customized sights, ported muzzle compensators for less recoil with the barrels extending through the compensators and ported to match the cut in said gun part, and both used reinforced slides. Ebony is in his left hand and colored black, and Ivory was in his right and colored white. They had bolted forward rails, double stack magazines with slam-pads, both had golden plated releases, hammers safety switches and triggers. One however, Ebony, had a hooked two-handed trigger guard while Ivory had a rounded trigger guard.

Charging them with demonic power, Nico went and launched bullets at all the attacks that approached him.

'Huh, this feels weird. It is similar to devil's magic, but somehow much darker. Maybe demonic?' Castiel thought while looking at the bullets that were approaching him. Nico's rate of fire was much greater than Castiel's, so he could not only neutralize the attacks but also attack back.

Castiel was still not impressed by this, and if anything he was disappointed since he was just too used to face tougher opponents that Nico right now. He wanted to see what were the limits of this one who had 'similar levels of potential' and to do that he wanted to pressure him one step at a time.

Nico saw that Castiel took out a weapon, a bow that gave him ALL levels of threatening vibes.

' **Nico, no matter what do not get caught by even one arrow of that bow.** ' Biko urged him from within his mind.

The fact that there was such an intensity in his voice did much in informing Nico of how much of a threat this Demon Persona. 'Is it that dangerous?' Nico asked, still shooting as if his life depended on that.

' **Yes. This bow gives me the feeling of looking at the hottest flame there is and compress it to the limit and then some more. Think of Urthemiel's flames and you get an idea.** ' Biko explained. ' **This is worse than most of your Devil Arms and the damage it could make is nothing to joke about. The only weapon you have that is even barely superior to that one is Soul Edge if fully active.** '

'Got it, avoid at all costs or I am fucked'. Nico thought, ending the communication as he saw Castiel pulling the string of his bow.

"GANDIVA" Castiel said as he released the string, an energy arrow there launched at unbelievable speeds and releasing flames that eliminated all shots from Ebony and Ivory instantly in contact.

Nico, out of instinct, quickly did something he rarely did in battles like these, and tapped into his OTHER side, He felt IT's power rush through his body like a flood, enhancing his physical powers to jump to the side and even then he barely managed to not suffer damage from that.

KABBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

A gigantic explosion happened, taking out everything that was even remotely close to the area of impact to that arrow. The ground turned into a mirror and cracked due to the extremes that the heat and power reached there.

'I see.., so Biko wasn't joking, that thing's destructive power is nothing to joke about...' The teen thought as he flipped through the air, controlling his momentum with parkour stunts. 'In that case, which power shall I respond with? This guy's powers feel foreign, almost alien to me and it seems that he doesn't recognize SP or Devil Arms. Does that mean that... Well. Alright, then...' The way he ended that thought was a mix of grim resignation, dark finality and bloodlust-fuelled eagerness. There were distinct emotions that he felt when channelling his two powers, his DPU powers felt like the cold fury of a warrior out for blood, like he was burning within the icy depths of a fiery hell if that made any sense.

However, using his OTHER side felt like the exact opposite, it felt like he was constantly on high, high on bloodlust, violence, and death. It really got him going and almost drove him over the edge many times. There were risks to using his OTHER side, but like his other two aspects said this guy apparently has no clue about things that a normal person in Gamindustri would know. If that was the case, then...

Oh, yeeeeeaaaaaah...

This was going to get good.

With those thoughts and his new mindset triggered, something snapped within him as Nico landed on the ground, sliding to a halt. The teen hung his head low, catching Castiel's attention for the time being. "#PANT# #PANT#... that's an interesting weapon, you got there..." the male muttered, slightly panting as he dismissed Harvester.

This action set off warning bells inside Castiel's mind. For some reason, the way that he spoke just made his instincts scream at him to be prepared, especially with how the tension on the battlefield seemed to just skyrocket. This guy's demeanor had also changed abruptly, and there was this foreboding feeling coming from him. All this definitely caught his attention as he kept his bow level with his opponent. "Gandiva's a Divine-class weapon, its powers can't be matched by most weapons." he stated.

"I see... that makes sense, a Godly weapon has to be OP..." Nico muttered, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. Slowly, he began lifting a hand to his face, his demeanor unchanging from this new state. "You say you wish to take this up a notch, yes?" He asked, but continued before Castiel could give an answer. "Well then... allow me to oblige you then!"

WHAM!

Castiel's brain shook from the hit he received to his face... from practically nothing. His eyes flew open wide at this, disbelief coursing through his system. 'Wha-What?! What the hell...?!' he thought in shock. 'What just hit me, there was nothing there and then I just got hit?!' His thoughts and actions had been so caught in dismay's web, that he had dropped Gandiva, which served to be the trigger for a rather brutal onslaught.

WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM!

The blonde boy couldn't react in time as he felt like he got punched all over like the Stands did in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. He couldn't find the time to recover as Nico quickly closed the distance and, like he was parodying Street Fighter's Ryu, delivered an uppercut to his chin that knocked him into the air. Then, something grabbed him by his right ankle and slammed him into the ground with brutal force, making Castiel gasp and cough up saliva.

He thought it could end there and he'd get a shot at a counter...

Boy, was he wrong as the thing on his Ankle REPEATEDLY slammed him into the ground without mercy.

SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM!

Honestly, he could see black specs appear in his vision of how hard this thing was slamming into him. Pain wracked his body on multiple levels as Castiel FINALLY got thrown away from the other male... only for something to grab him by the head (feeling like a claw) and slamming him headfirst into the ground. "Gah!"

This something then proceeded to royally mess with Castiel's head by dragging him through the dirt in a 360 circle multiple times (practically drawing on the ground using him as a pencil) before flinging him across the battlefield, making him roll across it which he used to get back to his feet while sliding to a halt.

'Holy shit... urgh! Argh, that burns...!' the blonde thought, groaning in pain as he held his head in one hand while casting healing blessings on his screaming skull. 'What the hell was that just now? Whatever it was, it...' all thoughts stopped him as Castiel looked up to Nico, who was in a combat stance similar to the US Marines back home, but thanks to his Mystic Eye, he could see... something, behind him. They looked like Tentacles, 6 of them to be exact, of a black colour which eerily reminded him of the colour 3 of his Wings possessed. Not only that, but thanks to his divine eye, the male saw them as clear as day unlike before. He suspected that the first hit had dazed him temporarily, throwing his senses out of whack since he could see them so clearly now. No to mention how they looked like they were vibrating extremely fast judging by how they looked to be constantly spasming.

At that point, Nico looked up...

'Okay, that's a little freaky...'

Castiel thought that as he saw the guy's eyes. Well, only his right eye was normal, the OTHER had turned black where the white should be, while the blue had turned a bleeding crimson red. Veins spread across the eye and the left side of his face, too, the Pupil shaking wildly.

Maybe he could ask? Wouldn't hurt they were meant to be allies after all.

"So, what the hell was that? Feels like you put me through a paper shredder..."

"These?" Nico remarked, gesturing to his Tentacles which pointed forwards towards Castiel. He got the feeling they were 'looking' at him with an intense hunger, and he did NOT like it. "Its a long story, but suffice it to say these things vibrate at such a high frequency that not only enhances their attack strength, speed, and agility, but they can also remain invisible unless I will them not to. There's more to it, but let's save that for after this." Nico replied.

"Yeah, let's leave it at that. I got to say, you showed me a neat trick but if this is as organic as I think it is you are fucked." Castiel smirked, a few drops of blood running from his nose.

'Okay... something's not right...' when Nico saw the blood, his mismatched eyes narrowed in confused suspicion. After all, why was his blood fucking SILVER?

Not giving Nico time to think about it Castiel changed weapons again. This time, instead of a bow it was Hruting, a great black sword that almost dripped bloodlust.

When Nico saw that sword, a flash of memory triggered in his mind to when he fought against Maghda, though the reason why eluded him. Nevertheless, the teen thought that it would potentially be a problem, but his Ghoul powers faced many weapons before and he believed that his Kagune would hold up no matter what.

He was proven wrong however, when he launched the first assault at Castiel, and after the first one was deflected (Castiel having already calmed down and could see it even if barely). Following that it was like he could see every single one of the strikes he launched, no matter the angle or the speed he would always react and cut it right in the middle as if it was just a joke.

Shock only lasted a second though, as Nico quickly began analyzing the sword, trying to figure out what its trick was. The memory of when he fought Maghda kept appearing in his mind, for reasons he didn't get.

Eventually deciding that enough was enough Nico decided to change things up a bit, instead of using his Kagune in the long distance style (Tentacle lunges and slashes to a more direct approach by launching his Rinkaku at non-lethal points at Castiel as he did not want to actually kill the guy, but when it was close to Castiel...

'KING STOP!' his ghoul side yelled at him, but it was already too late.

The moment the soundless and supposedly undetectable tentacles were about to get to Castiel he reacted, all at once, cutting the tentacles down with such ease that it was like it was made out of paper.

'GHHYYAAAAAAAAAA!' White Nico screamed in Nico's head, pure and sheer pain coursing through his being and Nico as well. The difference being that Nico was not quite as connected to the ghoul side of things.

' **What happened!?** ' Biko asked his 'companion' as he never saw him even seen to feel anything that happened. No matter how damaged the main body was or if the tentacles were hurt the White Nico never showed any reaction, but now he was screaming in pain while rolling on the ground.

'I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! I NORMALLY DON'T FEEL A THING FROM THE KAGUNE TENTACLES EVEN IF THEY ARE DAMAGED OR I LOSE THEM, SORT OF LIKE NEVER EVEN HAVING THOSE PARTS TO BEGIN WITH, BUT THE ONES BEING CUT BY THAT SWORD JUST DON'T WORK THE SAME, IT IS LIKE I AM FEELING PARTS OF MYSELF BEING RIPPED APART OVER AND OVER. IT FUCKING HURTS!' The White Nico explained.

That... did not sound all too good, not very good at all. Nervousness and anxiety started spreading from his chest to the rest of his body as Nico opted for a defensive stance, summoning Rebellion back into his hand. The male's grip on the blade tightened immensely, where his knuckles turned white from the lack of blood flow. Hell, he could feel the pressure ebbing away at his Soul right now, and that was something that he didn't want to think about right now, not when there were bigger things to worry about.

Nico didn't know the specifics about that sword of his, but it felt VERY similar to those Bloodfeeders Maghda possessed, but on steroids. Hell, even that feels like an understatement, his senses could pick up the raw energy oozing off that blade, most of that energy having been drawn from Nico's own Kagune. If he were honest, then his Rinkaku Kagune would be at a huge disadvantage here. Maybe his Bikaku would help, but he wasn't certain that would work. He couldn't use his Koukaku as effective as he had been able to use it in the past either, thanks to the Edict of Death. Part of him believed that he should recall his Rinkaku though, divert what remaining RC Cells he had left (he counted up to 40%) to more defensive means within his body. If he were to switch to his Bikaku, he would only be able to generate 2 Tails, and be unable to regenerate the Talons after a total of 3 times.

Thus, that was what he did.

Looking back to Castiel while his Rinkaku vanished into him, Nico eyed the sword he used warily while his Kakugan eye (the black and red veiny one) shook slightly. "I see... so that sword is quite literally a bloodsucker with the added bonus of enhancing your physical ability. As a secondary ability, it can swing at the optimum angles like it has a mind of its own." he mused thoughtfully. As he held Rebellion in his hand, the blade itself started to thrum with power, power that came from his Demonic Power as he began funneling it into the blade. Since he had little information about this blade other than the comparisons, Nico's instincts told him that he would be better off playing it defensive for now, reinforcing Rebellion with Demonic Power, as well as a touch of Hellfire in the form of a low heat around the blade which constantly thrummed with static electricity from the HF Technology imbued within the Devil Arm itself.

Castiel nodded, holding Hrunting out in front of him in a two-handed stance in preparation for Nico's next incoming attack. Watching that Kagune recede made him realize that this sword was indeed a natural counter towards it, so he didn't feel as threatened as he did before when he knew little about this guy's monster powers. As long as he had Hrunting on his side, this legendary blade would not let him down. "Quite an accurate assumption, though it won;t help you very much." he remarked with a shrug of his shoulders. "You still managed to make me go to 30% at least, so do you have more?" he questioned.

To respond to that, Nico blurred forth as Castiel allowed Hruting to swing in the optimal direction of Nico's next attack. The blade of Hrunting and the blade of Rebellion clashed in an epic collision, releasing a massive shockwave which caused the ground beneath them to explode, forming a crater the size of a single story building. Both blades trembled violently against one another, sparks flying by the millisecond as their welders pushed against each other. If one were to look, Castiel would be the one putting less strength into his blade than Nico was, due to how much power he had been supplied by his sword, power that he had gained from Nico's own organic Kagune.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

The two boys went, their blades repeatedly colliding with one another like rabid dogs vying for dominance in a certain territory. Both boys refused to give each other an inch, as although Castiel wasn't losing any ground at all due to the strength of Hrunting, it wasn't like he was gaining any ground either. Nico's Rebellion, when enhanced with Demonic Power, held out well against the legendary sword, for its simplicity was its greatest asset. Among all of Nico's Devil Arms, all of his weapons, this one held the most simplicity in that it possessed no special powers aside from being able to cut better with the HF Technology as well as the Demonic Power amping it up.

Nico couldn't help but feel like this situation would be progressing worse and worse for him if he kept this up. Demonic Power, SP, he had both of them in abnormal amounts. The former having been made larger by his ascension into Multi-Continent Class in terms of DPU Rankings. His SP Reserves had always been abnormally large too, though he got the feeling that his DPU status had something to do with it. He would make a note to ask Biko if he were to survive this battle. Hell, his natural healing factor (a factor which DIDN'T use extra RC Cells or Demonic Power relieving enough) helped mitigate the injuries he received during their clashes, but that help could only go so far. Especially when he would reach the point of his injuries escalating. Plus, they were getting nowhere fast, and that irked the male more than he would care to admit.

Just as they made to clash again...

Nico noticed that there were magic circles appearing all around them, trapping them inside a practical dome.

'Oh no!'

Quickly, Nico made to move out of there before the Magic Circles could fire at him, although Castiel didn't let him thanks to him firing them himself prematurely. That meant that whilst they didn't have their full power output, he could at least catch Nico in the blast and possibly end this fight. Therefore, the blonde Heir jumped out of the area just as the Magic Circles fired a barrage of purple energy attacks at the redhead.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Explosions rang about like they were raindrops during a rainstorm, filling the air and the area within the dome of Magic Circles to the brim. Landing before the dome, Castiel dismissed the dome and peered into the smoke, his eyes narrowing deeply to try and pinpoint Nico's location. Whilst his eye right now wasn't as functional as it could be due to his body struggling to cope with it, Castiel's vision had been somewhat enhanced. 'That attack should have hit him, I caught him by surprise during that attack so he should have had no choice but to take it...' the Heir thought to himself. What, did you think he would resort to just simply Hrunting? he was a Mage as well as a Warrior, and Magic was a part of his arsenal.

The smoke began to clear, and soon enough a figure could be seen kneeling like a knight before a King. He knew that position well, thanks to having seen it more than a few times growing up at the tower. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a certain redhead Spec Ops Agent, kneeling down and looking a little winded. There were certain trails of smoke radiating from his form to show that the attacks had indeed hit, but other than that he looked pretty much fine. Slowly, the teen stood up whilst Castiel regarded him with confusion, wondering how the hell he had managed to dodge that attack.

'Thank you Absolution...' Nico thought to himself, mentally sighing with relief. It had been a reflexive action, something that Nico had done without thinking if he were honest. Hell, it had happened so fast he had hardly any time to even recall what he had been doing. But even so, just a millisecond before he had been attacked by that bombardment of Magic attacks, the Spec Ops Agent had managed to summon Absolution, his Battleaxe and used its power to turn him into the DC Avatar, the form of the Defiler Demon which once wielded the weapon, to withstand the attack. The DC (Defiler Corruption) Avatar was like this extra body which formed over his own, enlarging him and turning him into something else. Plus, it has quite the durability on it, thus it would have been able to shield him from the attacks until they stopped.

It wasn't a perfect attempt though, as some attacks managed to char his back before the form covered it. Most of the skin had been burned to nothing by the attack, exposing fibers muscles and bones. That area had been regenerating till the smoke died down, and during that time he had hastily switched back to Rebellion so Castiel wouldn't notice. He figured it would be best to save that for emergencies. At least his Coat had mostly survived saved for the giant ass hole in it. Though, a little something special about his outfit... it was made from RC Cells. He'd made them from RC Cells due to their better durability than normal clothes, not to mention that they were better for training and long-time use too. Since they were made with RC Cells in them, they could self-repair, which was exactly what his Trench Coat did as trails of clothing spread over the hole over his healing back and mended the damage to his beloved Trench Coat.

"Alright, I gotta admit, surprised you managed to survive that." Castiel remarked, getting Nico's attention whilst the Spec Ops Agent readied his blade. "Nor endure it so well. You must have had something up your sleeve that you're hiding right now, but no matter. You managed to get me to at least 35% so far." the Heir commented whilst getting Hrunting ready for an offensive. "Be wary though, i'm coming for the offensive!"

'Not good... I doubt i'll be able to last long if I have to go for one of those offensives again...' Nico thought to himself whilst biting back a curse. The strength Hrunting possessed was nothing to joke about, it definitely surpassed Rebellion's strength when it was enhanced earlier. If it weren't for him enhancing it with Demonic Power, then it likely would have been damaged from the initial onslaught, and he would have had to switch to another weapon whilst it repaired itself inside his Soul. Nico could well and truly feel the pressure of this battle right now, and he was NOT just talking about the oppressive atmosphere of fighting against one who rules over others. There had to be SOMETHING he could do to get past Hrunting's defenses! Feints wouldn't work since from their last exchanges Nico had determined that the blade optimized itself in the best way possible, accounting for any possible errors in its defenses. He could try to catch Castiel off guard, but how the hell could he do that...?'

Before he could think further, Castiel charged at Nico, going for a horizontal slash across his chest. However, Nico jumped back to avoid the blade, then jumped forwards once he hit the ground, practically bouncing into a spinning slash that was aimed at Castiel's neck, for the Heir to block it easily. Sparks flew from their blades once more, before the two broke apart once again. '...Wait as minute, now that I think about it, its been a while since I last used any of my SP attacks beside that earlier PHANTOM WAVE I used to block some of his attacks earlier. I think its because I got so caught up in using my Demonic Powers that I forgot about the Skill attacks that I trained myself to develop during the beginning...' Nico thought, honestly feeling rather disgusted with himself for forgetting them.

He could imagine his mother scolding him about not recalling everything he had learned right now...

'Still...' Nico thought while Castiel twisted a full 360 degrees and swung Hrunting in an upward arc, launching a huge airwave from the sheer force and strength of the sword swing itself. Nico jumped to the side to barely dodge it in time (although his left hand up to his elbow was completely destroyed by the airwave), bending backwards to avoid a follow-up slash before he twirled into a kick to knock his opponent back before he could follow with a third slash, then jumped back to get some distance. His injury regenerated as well, catching the Heir's attention though he didn't say anything. 'How could I use those Skills right now? They aren't the strongest attacks I have, plus its not like I have... oh... Oh! Wait, there IS one!' he thought slightly widening his eyes in realization when he recalled one of the Skills he had possessed in his Arsenal. Sometimes, he REALLY wanted to punch himself for forgetting!

That Skill...

The one he had used when fighting a Fenrir back in Lastation after his first encounter with MAGES.! Before him and the Party learned how to Chain Skills together!

Just before Castiel made to summon more Magic Circles to launch icicles at his opponent, Castiel noticed that there was something different about Nico that just changed right now. Something had piqued his interest and gave him a bit of hope for this situation, a situation which Castiel himself had held dominance over ever since destroying Nico's Kagune.

'What could this guy be planning...?' the Heir wondered, arching a brow as he held Hrunting defensively. 'What could he be playing at...? No matter, he won't be able to get past Hrunting, so I'll be good-'

Right as Castiel thought that, Nico suddenly appeared right behind him in a burst of speed, looming over him from behind as a shadowy specter, only his single glowing red eye being visible. The sudden EXPLOSION of bloodlust that accompanied him resulted in a layer of pressure that loomed over the atmosphere and slammed onto the Heir's shoulders like dozens of 1000KG weights. nearly sending Castiel into shock had he not faced similar opponents before like Berserker. "It would be wise not to underestimate me, Emiya." Nico coldly stated, swinging Rebellion at his exposed back.

"Same could be said to you, as well Nico!" Castiel responded as he swung Hrunting to parry his swing. That was when he noticed it, just as their weapons briefly met and broke apart with a resounding CLANG sound, that the blade of Rebellion was covered in a different type of energy this time. No, this tie the energy aura around it looked almost... transparent, like a mirage or an illusion. Although, Castiel just KNEW from his experience with Magic that it was nothing of the sort. Time seemed to slow down as their blades left each other, and as they did so, Nico muttered two words from his lips whilst getting ready for a second attack, his lone Kakugan eye (which he had kept active this whole time) shone brightly with his bloodlust.

... "PHANTOM... EDGE...!"

BOOM!

In an instant, Castiel gasped when an explosion of transparent energy suddenly erupted from Hrunting, the explosion packing enough power to send him sliding backwards. Only barely did he manage to keep himself on the ground, thus making two long skid marks along the ground till he halted. 'Holy.. what the hell was that?!' the Heir exclaimed in his mind, stunned and bewildered from the recent experience. Just before the explosion had happened, Castiel had noticed that there was this strange mark which had appeared on Hrunting following the collision between their swords. Then, the explosion happened, and now that mark was gone. What the hell, was that some type of Magic just now...? 'No, that couldn't have been Magic, I would have known if it was. Plus Uncle Zelretch did say that my 'ally' would be from another place I haven't heard of before, so is this something unique to these people? Odds are, that's the case considering the evidence before me...'

Castiel had no more time to think when, in an instant Nico was already on him, with his Sword already covered in that transparent energy from before. This time, Castiel refused to let that attack land, and as such he jumped backwards whilst muttering a curse onto that blade **"Weak"** to limit the energy surge. The Aura quickly vanished as Nico deactivated the weakened Skill, although he didn't let up on his offensive. The result, was Nico unleashing another one of his SP Skills: "PHANTOM BLADES!" He yelled, a Magic Circle appearing behind him and from it, a series of blades were unleashed in Castiel's direction.

'Oh fuck!'

That was what the Heir thought as he let Hrunting's power take hold. The blade became a whirlwind of motion as he began slashing away at the Blades of transparent energy that threatened to impale him several times over. Of course, none of them hit him thanks to the prowess he had as a swordsman trained by the Heroic Spirit Saber, as well as Hrunting as well, but the result was a smokescreen being generated all around him.

Quickly, Castiel got on guard as he held Hrunting defensively, buffing himself with reinforcement Magic as well as activating a few blessings to improve his physical ability. Whilst in this smoke he would not take any chances, plus if he left this smoke then odds were Nico would unleash those blades of his again, something which Castiel did NOT want to deal with since it took a lot of effort to block them. Not to mention that now he felt like he was beginning to work up a sweat, having to swing Hrunting about like his life depended on it, in addition to the surprising surge of Bloodlust. To be honest... he was starting to get a little excited, hopeful even. This may not be the leader in him talking though, but his inner Warrior and inner Mage couldn't help but enjoy the thrill of the fight. A fight where he didn't have to worry about things like injuring his opponent.

Soon enough, Nico's offensive continued as many PHANTOM BLADES pierced through the smoke, forcing Castiel to block them while he muttered a few spells to launch several fireballs at where the PHANTOM BLADES came from. Since they came from a Magic Circle behind his opponent, Castiel believed that they would have to come from his position in order to be launched.

Turned out he was right...

As he soon found himself looking upon an approaching PHANTOM WAVE, that same purple wave of Plasma that had been launched at him previously in their bout.

Cursing under his breath, Castiel held his Sword up and met with the attack, the impact of it sending him sliding out of the smoke... and right where Nico had appeared with Rebellion coursing with transparent energy. Castiel cursed again at this, knowing that he was too busy blocking one attack with Hrunting right now, therefore he couldn't do much but endure the second one since he had so little time to cast any Spells.

BOOM!

The moment the energy slash landed across his back and erupted, the PHANTOM WAVE detonated too, forcing Nico to jump back to get some distance while riding the shockwave. When he landed, the teen slid to a halt, stabbing Rebellion into the ground to halt his movement. Once his momentum stopped, Nico allowed himself to release an audible exhale of relief, having been unknowingly holding his breath during that assault. Now THAT had been some risk-taking on his part. Nico didn't have 100% confidence that what he had done just now would have worked, his SP Skills weren't his strongest powers after all. That didn't mean they were weak, but it was just a comparison to his more Demonic Skills. Part of him wanted to go DEMONIC OVERDRIVE too, since it would raise his physical abilities beyond his human body's limit, but he had refrained since he wanted to conserve energy.

There was no way that all that had done this guy in, not by a long shot.

His suspicions proved to be true when a single swing of Hrunting dispersed the smoke generated by his dual attacks, revealing Castiel to be standing there with his body looking little less refined than it had been before. A little more roughed up, but otherwise he looked fine. Nico didn't let this bother him, or rather he kept his irritation about not doing much damage hidden, since despite himself he had secretly wished to have done more. "... #HUFF#... #HUFF#... how about that?"

"Well, it wasn't too bad at least." Castiel replied as he rolled his right shoulder, feeling some cracks in doing so. He looked Nico over and narrowed his eyes. "Those attacks were weak, way weaker than your Demonic ones. You seem to rely heavily on that set of abilities, which for a warrior is not a good thing at all." Castiel stated, not mentioning that he had to up the power to 50% to healing himself from the damage received. That attack had not been weak by any means, it had the feeling of Nico having put in more energy and effort in than he normally would to pull it off. Plus, he DID, after all, use two attacks to get through his defenses just then, so this could only be expected.

Nico could only nod, much to his irritation as he looked down at his blade. Rebellion constantly released the humming which came with HF Technology as he thought about what happened so far. "It pains me to admit this, but you're right. Those Skills just now were ones I trained myself in for a long time, but ever since I gained my powers, I've slowly fallen out of touch with using them. Its... not something I'm proud of, both as a warrior and as a person." Nico replied, before he glanced to his left shoulder where he could see a large hole gradually closing up. "I'll have to say though, you DEFINITELY had me on the ropes for a long while. That sword of yours is a nightmare on the battlefield, to be sure with how it automatically makes the best slashes possible with any given situation. If I hadn't recalled these Skills and thought up that entire plan on the fly, then you would have definitely done me in." and all before he could showcase his full power too, Nico thought as he cursed in his mind.

Castiel nodded his head at this. "Well, that will teach you not to overly rely on your Demon Powers then, they're strong don't get me wrong, but when it comes to a time when they aren't available to you, your attack powers will decrease severely as wellas limiting oneself to only one type of power makes it so that you lose most efficiency if it isn't effective due to any reason. Anyways, lets continue. You're already halfway to making me go all out anyway, which is better than what I had expected from someone as unstable and without proper training to master anything to the apex as you. But anyways..." Raising his free hand, Castiel smirked darkly with a sinister glimmer in his eyes, making Nico scowl mentally as he got ready for whatever was coming. "Since you've been taking what I've been dishing out so well, how about I give you a little reward?"

Before he got an answer, Castiel just yelled out " _CRUEL STAR_!" followed by a 'SCREEEEEEE!' sound. The moment that sound occurred, what looked like a miniature sun, easily the size of a Basketball, formed over his hand. The sun spiralled around above his hand, floating there whilst emitting heat strong enough to be felt by his surroundings. "Try and live through this, if you can..."

Over by his side of the battlefield, Nico felt the extreme heat of the attack, and quickly realized just what the Heir intended to do. Fortunately whilst this flame had been WAY hotter than the other flames from before, his own resistance to fire helped him withstand it. 'This isn't good, that Sun carries quite the heat to it, if I let that hit me then I won't be able to escape unscathed. I COULD just switch to THAT sword and move out of the way then strike at his exposed openings, or I can have Urthemiel appear briefly to counter it with its own Primal Flames.' The male thought, watching as Castiel reared the ball backwards in preparation to throw.

However, at the last second, an idea came to him. One which would allow him to not only repel that attack, but be able to showcase more of his power so that Castiel wouldn't look down on him. It would keep him from relying on Urthemiel, too, which would be a big plus in his book. 'Oh yeah, I'll do that!' he thought, a small smile forming beneath his Mask as he narrowed his mismatched eyes at his opponent. "Heh, fire, huh? Well, ain't that a relief." the male mused, getting Castiel's attention when he raised a brow, pausing his throw at the last second.

"What are you talking about?"

"You thought you were the only one with fire, didn't you?"

Countering with a question of his own, Nico held his own hand out, generating and condensing his OWN fire ability: the Hellfire which came from his Demonic Powers. Unfortunately, its true form was locked from him unless he transformed, but this power burned at up to 3000 Degrees even in its base orangish red form, and he would be putting a LOT of fire power into this one, enough to counter what his senses were telling him. His Hellfire had the ability to devour whatever they touched, as the surroundings between the two males heated up even more when the heat from the two sources combined together. Holding it when it reached the same size as Castiel's CRUEL STAR even when he concentrated and condensed the Hellfire (which resulted in it's IMMENSE heat) the young redhead smirked just as darkly as Castiel had earlier, whilst the mentioned Heir widened his eyes in surprise at the ability. "Well, your not! Now then... LETS SEE WHOSE IS STRONGER, YOUR LITTLE EMBER OR MY HELLFIRE!"

'… Ember?! Oh, NIco did NOT just insult his flames like that. I will make him pay for that one, for sure!' That was what passed through the blonde teen's mind as memories of how he got these flames replayed themselves, of how Kokabiel burned his body to a crisp even as he tried to defend himself and how he still could feel what his eye melting inside his socket felt like. Castiel's brow twitched angrily as he resumed his throw, yelling. "Well, lets see why don't we then!?"

As a result, Nico countered as well, hurling the condensed ball of Hellfire towards his opponent's attack. The two attacks shot through the air like bullets, or great meteors on a collision course. A second later, the two collided... lasting only a couple moments in a heated struggle for supremacy. The raw heat from the CRUEL star had been immense, and Nico had seen it despite the insult he had made earlier as the CRUEL STAR seemingly expanded in size the moment it got released. As such, Castiel smirked at what he was seeing, thinking that his flames would be victorious.

However, just as the upper hand began to side towards him making him open his mouth to gloat, Nico's Hellfire suddenly ERUPTED into a larger blazing form, the condensed flames exploding from the pressure suddenly forced onto them and resulting in Nico's simple fire attack expanding in size to a similar level to Castiel's own. Coupled with their greedy and hungry nature, the advantage soon returned to a stalemate between them... until it reached its peak and-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

In the end, both attacks exploded, negating each other and leaving only a slightly hotter atmosphere behind... and two dissatisfied competitors staring each other down.

'Tch, a draw...!' Both of them thought in annoyance.

'Fucking hell... wish that attack had scorched him into a crisp! Maybe with that he wouldn't be saying that these flames are weak.' Castiel cursed in his mind as he readied himself to fight more. It would be pointless to have another CRUEL STAR attack ready with this information, since Nico could probably make more of those attacks himself. He hadn't felt much of dent in Nico's energy reserves when making them either, so e felt like the redhead could use them constantly and for a long ass time. He could probably do the same thanks to his Magic Core, but this WAS meant to be a Spar and he didn't feel like straining his Magic Core today. Castiel also felt that his attack should have defeated Nico's by a landslide, given that the flames he used were those of a Star, Kokabiel's flames (albeit not at their best since he only absorbed a portion of them from that asshole). Perhaps he could have added the flames from Argetlan as well, but if Nico could just counter with more condensed flames, then it would just cancel each other out again. Again, he didn't want to waste precious energy, a remnant of his behavior when NOT having a Magic Core. To be honest, Castiel could be wastefull and summon more of these, but he was far too used to worry about energy reserves to do such a thing.

On the redhead's side, as angry and frustrated that he felt for his attack not incinerating Castiel's strike in seconds, Nico forced himself to calm down and analyse the situation. 'Alright, so that Sun of his had a lot more heat than my attack, but my Hellfire beat it thanks to its ability to devour what they touch. If they were in their true forms, I bet that attack wouldn't have lasted NEARLY as long under their wrath, since the sun burns at 4000 degrees Celsius whilst my Hellfire in its true form burns at up to 5000. He also didn't compress them NEARLY as much as I did, which lead to mine taking the upper hand hen the pressure forced my Hellfire's compression to shatter and explode. If he had compressed them just as much as I did, then things would have turned out way differently... Maybe if he strikes with that again, I'll just angle mine differently so instead of cancelling each other out they'll move AWAY from my position... but the explosion would still have been massive in any case. Looks like...'

He/I shouldn't underestimate those flames.

Nico broke into a mad dash that broke the ground beneath his feet. Castiel expected the guy to try something funny like that feinting trick again, but instead, something else happened. From Nico's tailbone, erupted another Kagune, this one being a single long, large grey Tail covered in grey Armour plates and ending in 6 long, thin blade-like Tips for stabbing and slashing purposes, while arrow-like Talons protruded from it's sides.

Oddly enough, the blonde thought of a Centipede, seeing it.

Wait... Seeing it?

A thought hit him.

Why could he see this one completely and not the Tentacles?

Those thoughts halted when he jumped back to avoid the lunge of a Tentacle, out of reflex and instinct really. Before Hruting could slash it, the Tail jerked upwards, wrapping around both the blade and the arm holding it to halfway up the bicep. Castiel cringed, feeling Hruting struggle to break free to no avail, much to his shock. "Wait, what?!"

"Surprised?" Nico questioned, smirking again with his Kakugan eye bearing down on his prey. "Its not often I use this, but a Monster has more than one 'Fang' you know. My Bikaku, to be frank, has enough gripping strength to catch several bullet trains rushing at it at full speed. I'm not sure about you, but i'm PRETTY sure your sword doesn't have enough blood to match that. But, just in case..."

It was then that Castiel felt something nicking constantly at his arm, causing him massive pain and discomfort. He glanced down at it, and to his shock he saw that the Tail had formed fanged maws from various places on its body and were in the process of... trying to devour his left arm.

'Well, ain't that ironic?' Castiel thought as he released his left arm spirit bone, starting a counter process of devouring the Kagune maws trying to devour him. It was like two beasts trying to eat at each other, the difference, however, was in the sheer scale of devouring. While Nico's Kakugan was like a lion taking piece after piece of the enemy, but Castiel's left arm bone was more like a whale that simply devoured everything in front of it.

Sensing the danger, Nico had no choice but to disengage the Kagune or his already low RC cell's counting would reach its lowest point of his life, this being a testament of how bad a Ghoul matched up to Castiel's skill set.

'Note to self, avoid continuous contact with Castiel using any form of Kagune. Otherwise, I will lose badly.' Nico thought.

Though, he did admit that he had seen something akin to a Bone over the arm beneath the coiling Bikaku.

Both jumped back, getting some distance between each other. They took a few moments to gaze at each other, planning their next moves, before they burst forth into high-speed runs and entered a furious bout of slashes.

SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH!

They went, circling around one another. Nico mentally frowned, noting that there was an extreme difference in sheer power between them. That sword had already devoured quite a bit of blood from his Kagune, much of his RC Cells having been depleted. He didn't like that, neither did his White Copy, however the brief moments where he had been able to devour that arm before it began eating his Kagune he had stolen a tiny bit back. These strikes were no joke either, each time their weapons collided it felt like he was striking against a mountain, an effect he found familiar since it reminded him of fighting Logan back at Skies End when he entered that first Demon Form.

Not only that, but he constantly got Curses put on him like Weak, Slow, Sickness, doubt, etc, and his Demonic Power got a real workout limiting and destroying those Curses.

Jumping back to avoid an overhead smash that resulted in a large crater (even then he got scratched by some of the debris), Nico made to switch weapons, though Castiel didn't let him do that as he dashed forth, swinging at his shoulder. Nico quickly swung a Demonic Power-enhanced Rebellion out of reflex, and it was barely enough to just deflect the attack away from him. He had to angle his blade at just the right angle to divert most of the strength away from him, it showed by how much he was beginning to sweat.

'Looks like I'll have to Armour up...'

Castiel raised a brow when he saw a black light shining at Nico's chest. His unasked questions got answered when he was surrounded by black data streams, ones that vanished seconds later to reveal some... rather demonic knight-esque Armour. It had a black under suit that went from his hands and feet to his neck while the rest had crimson red Armour. The helmet completely covered his head to expose none of his human skull (not even his left eye), being made from demonic-looking, wicked crimson Armour. It had two red eye lenses from which Nico's eyes were located, while the face looked slanted forwards like a demonic snout. There were multiple ridges down the forehead that ended at the nose, which looked more like a short, stubby horn than anything. Out the top of the helmet were 4 long, curved spikes with 2 on each side, and a single ridge in the middle. Across the face's lower section was a lipless maw of crimson fangs designed into the helmet, not an actual maw. From the helmet's sides, two long horns pointed forwards, made from the same material as the helmet. Along the lower jaw and chin were short, stubby spikes like a makeshift beard.

For the upper body the sides, the torso and along the stomach were covered in demonic crimson Armour plates. There were two shoulder pads, 1 for each shoulder, that were much like those of his DPU form in that they were much larger than his actual shoulders and went outwards. They each had a single Spike-like structure similar to the horns from the Helmet protruding upwards, with stubby spikes protruding away from the Armour's wearer. The forearms were covered in crimson Armour that started with thick-looking spiked bands at the elbows and ended with another set at the wrists. Interestingly enough there were black-grey chains connected between these bands, adding to the demonic appearance the Armour had, while the Armour itself formed 4 short claws over the knuckles. The hands themselves were covered by the undersuit. More chains wrapped around his waist, which were connected to these two skirt-like crimson pieces that fell in-between behind him and beside his legs.

Speaking of the lower body, the legs had demonic crimson Armour up to the knees, sporting stubby spikes in various places and ended in single talon toed boots that had an extra talon for heels. "Huh... so you have Armour, too..."

"Too?"

"If you can push me further, maybe you will get to see it!" Castiel shouted as he activated one of his new original spells, Siegfried, to increase his body's physical defense. He could have used Brionac too, but it would not be that good since he might accidentally kill Nico. That attack was just that dangerous as Castiel was not yet experienced enough with it to not accidentally kill Nico.

Looking back at his opponent, Castiel noticed that he had re-summoned Rebellion and was already on his way to strike at him again. Castiel quickly began chanting Spells to hold him off, and by the time he had gotten within sword striking range, the blonde had healed enough to swing Hruting onto Rebellion. Or rather, that was what SHOULD have happened...

"QUICKSWORD."

With that one word, Nico's Rebellion launched a furious flurry of high-speed slashes, slashes Hruting managed to block due to its ability (though Castiel couldn't see them well like that Tail thanks to them being so fast). However, Nico combined this series of strikes with slashes from his Bikaku Kagune, really going to town on Castiel's ass. His repeated use of this Quicksword thing made it nigh impossible to get a strike in himself, so he quickly applied the ' **SLOW** ' curse on his blade, slowing its movements temporarily to get some distance...

If only he had noticed where he was stepping, as the Bikaku Tail surfaced from underground again to spear him.

Not wanting to end up like before, Castiel quickly slashed at it, the blade and the Tail's tips meeting. Because of the nature of the blades, Hruting couldn't draw any blood much to Castiel's frustration. The teen nearly recoiled when he felt two Tentacles slam into the side of his head and hip respectively, making him side flip into the air before he was whacked away by the Bikaku, which ripped itself out the ground and then retreated back into its master.

Sliding to a halt (this time embedding Hruting into the ground for support) Castiel applied some healing Blessings on himself. Seriously, he has had to use these Blessings more than he had been using in his past spars. Well, at least this too was good practice on how to use them.

Nico, who was already on him again, took note of this as he slashed towards Castiel's right shoulder from below. The Heir to the Tower felt Hruting race to block it... when he suffered a slash on his shoulder. "Huh? What the-?" was all he could say before Nico slashed his stomach, chest and opposite shoulder, blood squirting from the wounds before he kicked him away with a roundhouse kick.

"That, dude, was the Vipersword..." Nico proclaimed Rebellion angled downwards at his side. The blade, now that Castiel noticed, looked to be violently rippling like it was a living, thrashing viper. "It uses the body's natural flexibility to vibrate and undulate the sword, making it resemble a rippling snake. This illusion makes its blows almost impossible to anticipate or block. My variant is stronger, though." he explained while his Rinkaku reared back, pointing their tips at Castiel. "Got more techniques, but yeah..."

That was when Nico noticed something. He was sure that he impacted Castiel many times using his blade, but the amount of blood(?) he was releasing was simply too little. That was when he realized, all those attacks he did right now simply scratched Castiel, nothing more.

'How the hell did THAT happen?' Nico thought making a dumbfounded face behind his helmet while looking at Castiel.

Castiel noticed this and smirked.

"Did you like that? I activated an original spell of mine, it is called Siegfried and it has only one ability, it makes damaging my body just that much more difficult.I can still up my defense even further by the way, but unless you up your game it won't be necessary. And don't forget" A light appeared over Castiel as he activated his healing blessings, closing the new wounds on his body. "I can regenerate myself, even if not that fast." Castiel then stuck Hruting on the ground and with a serious pose said. "Do you still have any form to show to increase your power further? If not this spar will turn meaningless."

Strangely enough, Nico had a clear impression that Castiel was royalty somehow, the moment he put his sword on the ground and looked at him he released the same type of charisma that some of the bigger and TRULY powerful nobles and kings of old had. A clear and distinct contrast to those from the 'modern' Leanbox, it was like comparing the ancestor who built a clan with a descendent leading it to ruin.

Shaking his head to get out of this mindset Nico refocused himself. What Castiel said was infuriatingly true, even if he did not want to reveal his DPU form all that much, if he continued as he was it would just turn into a prolonged fight and this was not what either of them was after. They wanted to see the limits and full abilities of the one they should ally with, but both of them refused to be looked down upon. Nico for the sheer desire to prove his strength and that he was the better warrior, Castiel due to the fact that he was the heir to the Tower and had no desire or accepted to be looked down by someone he considered bellow himself in power or would ever accept that.

In the end, the two were hot-blooded young man and both of them wanted to show that they were better than the person in front of them. The two had a deep down and ingrained in their bones desire to be the strongest, their pride demanding victory.

The red-haired demonic teen eventually gained an idea feeling the power of ONE specific Devil Arm reaching out to him. The strongest one by far, out of all the Devil Arms he had. The Devil Arm that held dominance over his Soul, his ultimate weapon. Its power transcended forms, being available no matter if he was in human or DPU Form. It had watched this entire battle, and it wanted to show off its power. His Ghoulish Kagune retracted into him, his Kakugan returning to normal as he held rebellion in his Offhand, the sword thrumming with power and cackling with glee inside of him as he stepped towards Castiel. His posture indicating that he would NOT be bowing today.

This behavior made Castiel raise a brow, and a slight tugging sensation form in his gut. The male felt like this was someone who would challenge his rule as king, someone who would stand for himself to the very end... something he truly respected and admired. Not only that, but he could feel something coming from the other male, an energy that he had sensed at the beginning but dormant. Throughout the fight, this energy, which felt like another Clarent only much darker, had slowly but surely become more and more aware as time went on.

Now, it was deciding to FINALLY get involved...

That was the reason why he would finally draw Clarent. The holy sword, the strongest sword he had that signified his rule as a King, it sensed that power and felt that it could rival its own. It wanted to test that theory it wanted to fight against it. But Castiel knew that this guy wouldn't draw out such a powerful weapon unless he had to, it was common sense between warriors.

"Oh don't you worry, I still can go further. But... can you accompany me?" Nico said with a confident smirk behind his helmet. His eyes began too shine a dull red within it as he decided to do it, he decided to draw that weapon. He could feel its gleefulness assaulting his being as well as its power building, building and building within him. It almost felt suffocating to him, but the repeated use of this weapon got him used to this pressure. Especially when it traveled down his arm and into his hand, ready to be unleashed.

"Ha, you should be the one worried about that." Castiel said, taking Hruting on his left hand before drawing Clarent with his right one.

And just with that Nico could feel that Castiel was again even more dangerous than before. The aura of power and dignity he felt before was increased many times over, the energy Biko was feeling anyways.

 **'It is time, Nico. THAT weapon has finally recovered and is back to 100% capacity, ready to be unleashed onto the battlefield once more. Test the waters with it, first. Use its weaker form to see if its worth going DDD or not, then show no mercy.'**

"Well then, I see that new sword of yours has a lot of power..." Nico stated, feeling his adrenaline pumping like no tomorrow as he began releasing the power. Heat rolled off him in waves, challenging the dominating aura of Castiel who felt like he was looking at the fires of hell itself. Nothing like the Underworld the Devils were in, though. This felt stronger, more like a twisted depiction of hell. Slowly, Nico raised his hand, the heat intensifying every second.

"Then how about... we give it a worthy opponent?! Come... SOUL EDGE!"

Hearing the call of its wielder, Soul Edge answered. Orangish red fire roared to life from his hand, shooting up into the skies and releasing a wave of heat, dust and debris at Castiel's direction. Said male raised his arms to shield his face from them, but he still noticed the cracks spreading along the ground from Nico's feet. Though if the smirk on his face was anything to go by, he didn't see the threat he was about to face. The next thing he knew, the flames began to shrink, condensing themselves into a sword-like form within Nico's palm, which clenched them. That action made the flames take on a solid form.

'Yes, finally...!'

At last, he got to see what that power was! That power he had sensed from the very beginning that Clarent bugged him on and on about!

Once the blade was fully formed, Castiel looked... quite surprised actually. In Nico's hand was a truly demonic-looking blade, way more demonic than most of the other swords he had seen. It had the appearance of a giant sword with demonic crimson flesh filling the blunt side of the blade. At the base of the hilt, there was a single, yellow slitted eye with one side of the sword featured a fleshy blade with a metallic edge.

Soul Edge's eye, much to the blonde's discomfort, shifted about like a living human eyeball, before its gaze landed upon him and he felt a glare hotter than the fires that Kokabiel pummeled him with. Not only that, but the sword released a wave of power that pushed back the 'aura' his royal stance had developed, pushing it away from its wielder, challenging the King's rule.

Well, how could he resist such a challenge?

"So then..." Nico's voice brought him back from his thoughts. "Is this the answer you wanted, Castiel Emiya?! If you want more power then you'll have to try and FORCE it out of me!"

'A B Class Noble Phantasm? No, it is simply locked from its fullest potential. Maybe it can reach A+ class? Well, even if all the energy inside is used it still pales in comparison to Saber-sensei's Excalibur and I have no reason to fear it too, even if this demonic energy in the blade seems dangerous.' Was what Castiel was thinking as he readied Clarent and Hruting, excitement from both blades cursing through his whole body.

Once that was out of the way, both Castiel and Nico burst forth towards each other, the ground breaking beneath their feet.

BOOM!

The two collided their weapons, all four of them, together which released a shockwave that ripped the ground beneath them apart without mercy. Nico and Castiel quickly began exchanging blows faster than even their eyes could see, Nico applying the Quicksword technique with Rebellion, though he sometimes switched to the Vipersword Technique when he got the chance. This served the purpose of keeping Hruting busy while also sneaking in a few hits here and there. Hits that Castiel barely felt thanks to Siegfried. Castiel too hit Nico multiple times with Hruting, his swordsmanship being strong and developed enough that even Nico's fancy attacks could not stop Hruting's blade, but all hits were healed in seconds by Nico's regenerative powers.

On the other hand, Soul Edge and Clarent duked it out like fierce rivals, their energies and forms colliding relentlessly and constantly releasing deadly sparks that could incinerate their wielders if they didn't have the ability to regenerate from them. Soul Edge swung with enough physical power that, even in its lesser form, matched Clarent blow for blow. The blood from Hruting boosted Casitel's physical power, but Soul Edge did just as well with having unleashed a DEVIL'S BLESSING on Nico just seconds before their first contact.

Breaking away from each other, Nico raised Soul Edge and unleashed an ATOMIC INFERNO, 30 fiery Homing Rays erupting from the slashing blade that flew towards their target's position. Castiel used Hruting though, and effortlessly slashed them to pieces, but if his instincts about this guy were true, then he was likely going for a fake-out of some sort.

His thoughts turned to reality when Nico suddenly vanished in a red flash, appearing behind him with Soul Edge blazing with orangish red flames. Castiel twisted around to block the incoming INFERNITY EDGE with Clarent, then swung Hruting to counter Rebellion's follow-up slash. He twirled into a double reverse slash, which Nico dodged by teleporting once again, the slashes creating fissures on the ground. The two, as if in an agreement, headbutted each other and both felt equally painful as the two were too hard headed.

Reappearing beside him once again, Nico showed that he had both Rebellion and Soul Edge engulfed with both flames and energy. He unleashed both of them in an X Scissor slash, to which Castiel countered that with his two swords slahing together in a direct strike, the strikes lead to an explosive shockwave knocking them backwards.

Both slid to a halt, looked at each other once, before they charged back in, Castiel muttering a few spells while also creating runes to launch lightning bolts towards his opponent who used a MAGMA SHOT to deal with them, jumping through the created smoke into a spinning disk top slash frenzy, Vipersword applied to Rebellion. Deciding NOT to get hit by that attack, Castiel jumped to the side, allowing both blades to hit the ground while not expecting the shockwave born from them to blow him further backwards. The spell he was preparing was launched as spheres of pure magic energy similar to magic bombardment were launched at the red-haired teen who also avoided them but was caught in the explosion and being sent flying.

Slamming Hruting into the ground, Castiel quickly dashed forth to curt on Nico's shoulder. However, Nico rolled out the way in time, not wanting to endure one of those fissure-inducing attacks before swinging Soul Edge upwards, blocking a strike from Clarent that blew Castiel backwards slightly. Yet, even as that happened, Castiel had a pleased smirk on his lips. Pleasure coursed through his being as the fight only intensified from there.

After they fought for what felt like hours on end, Nico unleashing all his arsenal of Skill attacks combined with his skillful use of the Vipersword and Quicksword while Castiel countered with the buffs his Spell and Hruting offered him, Castiel began to notice something off about himself. Something that he only had a few moments between Nico's heavy onslaught to check.

"It seems you've noticed, too."

Looking towards Nico, who stopped before him with his blades held in a V shaped angle, Castiel raised a brow at him. "What do you mean?"

"Not sure completely, but it looks like your body's overexerting itself." Nico curtly replied, pointing Rebellion at him. "I can sense negative emotions, and your body's been undergoing stress from overheating. Odds are, you won't last much longer if we keep this up."

Castiel just smirked at this, as his eyes caught sight of the way Nico's body also seemed to be showing exhaustion, though Nico did a good job of hiding it. "Looks like you're not at hundred percent either." he commented, getting a mild tensing from the male as a result making him roll his eyes. "You're not the only observant one here, dude. Noticed it a while ago, same for you apparently."

It was at this moment, that Castiel decided to end this, and to do that he would have to go all out. It was time, not only had Nico pushed him to this point, but the way they were going it wouldn't be long before they were unable to show their full power. That could not be allowed, something both of them could agree with. This fight was to gauge each other's ultimate power after all, so something like that couldn't be allowed to happen. "How about this, then? We each go into our full power and unleash our strongest attacks. Winner is whoever's left standing."

Nico shrugged. "I'll take that bet. Now..." the teen chuckled sinisterly as he discarded Rebellion into his Void Storage while gripping Soul Edge in two hands. "Hit me with your best shot, Castiel Emiya!"

"Hah, be careful what you say, Nico! Those are some fighting words!" Castiel responded, closing his eyes and calling upon his full power. In moments, the male was bathed in a white light, which soon faded to reveal him being clad in a golden Armour, no different from the royalty that he was. Out of his back, were his 4 Angel wings purest of white that made Nico had the impression of what the first Goddess light must have been like, while his left set of 4 were abyssal black as if someone cut apiece of the darkest corners from space and made wings out of it.

Not to mention that his power shot through the roof. It clearly overshadowed most enemies Nico ever thought, and the dread Nico felt from the energy Castiel was releasing seemed to come from all his instincts. Almost like any attack from that energy that was embracing Castiel's full body was poisonous to Nico.

However, Nico didn't falter as he held Soul Edge in a ready stance. "So.. this is your full power, is it?" he remarked, slowly. 'There's his Armour too... reminds me of a royal king becoming a knight to protect his people...'

"Yup, now, show me this power that rises against this King, Nico! Show me the power that rumbles within you!" Castiel bellowed, stabbing Clarent into the ground which cracked the earth and made it rise up behind him, a golden holy aura surrounding him.

Well, if this guy wanted to see his full power, who was he to argue? At this point, it would be considered cowardly NOT to transform.

Closing his eyes, Nico then concentrated, reaching into the depths of his being to the DPU Core within him. It soon answered his call, and from deep within, the primordial power of the DPU flooded his being to begin the transformation.

Outside, Castiel remained silent as he saw his opponent get engulfed in a cocoon of flames, flames that roared like a vicious beast rebelling against its masters who had subjugated it for so long, before they subsided to reveal Nico in a brand new form. Now, Nico stood as a grown man standing at 8 feet. His red hair had turned completely black, his eyes unknown since they were closed. His body is covered in orangish red Armour, as well as a fleshy skin-tight suit. The head of his Armour covered much, save for his eyes, which were seen through empty holes in the helmet, and the mouth. The helmet had a large crest-like shape, with the muzzle AKA the mouth bare to expose his mouth. The chest, shoulders, arms, legs and waist were all completely Armoured, everywhere else being covered by a fleshy skin-tight suit. The Armour had an orangish red sheen to it, with the hands being shaped into clawed Gauntlets with spikes coming out the elbows. More spikes protruded from the shoulder guards and the knees. On the chestplate there was a glowing yellow core of energy, as well as matching veins that spread across the man's body. out the back of the man's tailbone, was a long, segmented crimson red Tail, the same length as his height. Out his upper back was a pair of flaming wings like a Phoenix's, shaped like the namesake, and reached down to its feet which had several long talons protruding out of the front, 1 extra from the heel. Though, what caught his attention the most was the admittingly powerful orangish red aura flooding through his system.

All around him, Nico's new form affected his surroundings, heating up the atmosphere way more than his Hellfire had done previously whilst his aura flared just as wildly. KI and BLOODLUST surged from his being, as well as from his weapon like two large beasts roaring in unison. His grip on Soul Edge tightened as he eyed his opponent, who just floated there with his mismatched wings staring right back... with no small traces of excitement in his body language.

"Alright..." Nico began, speaking as if he had two different voices as he opened his crimson eyes, showing the glowing black slitted power button symbols in them as he held Soul Edge in its true form and glory towards his opponent. In this form, while Soul Edge retained a Greatsword-like form, it possessed no eyes this time, along with sporting multiple edges with it's middle having a row of long, large teeth going to just beneath its tip, shrinking in size the more they neared. It had a semicircular Guard shaped like a talon, with a shorter one opposite it. "This is what you wanted, Castiel Emiya. Are you satisfied that you see my full power, yet?!" he asked him.

"Very, for uncle Zelretch to say that you are on the same level as me I would admit nothing less. Now, let's release our most powerful strikes and define once and for all who is the strongest right now." Castiel answered with the unchanged kingly and dominant aura around him. It was less like he was proposing a course of action and more like he was ordering as such.

Nodding his head Nico entered in a stance and started releasing his full power, and that would be best utilized by one of his most dangerous attacks: FIRE SCORCHER. Truthfully, he hadn't pushed himself to use it with Soul Edge's full power before, but there's a first time for everything. Raising the monstrously large blade, the black haired DPU began pumping all his power into it, both his Demonic Power and his SP Reserves. The two energies spiraled together, combining into a deadly, violent mixture erupting from the blade's form to the tip. When they reached the tip, the energies gathered together into one big ass meteor that rivaled half the battlefield in size. The meteor crackled chaotically, like it was the center of a raging storm with a furious layer of electrical energy. Nico also added in the power of his Hellfire in its true form, resulting in the black and red flames ROARING to life beneath him, spiralling upwards and merging with his attack, turning it into a black and red version of itself with similarly crackling energy. The energy made waves that ripped through the air that blew away the dirt around its maker while pushing the ground behind him upwards... an equal amount that Castiel did before.

Seeing this Castiel did the same. He put Hruting away so as to focus his entire power on his next move. Putting his two hands in Clarent he put it in an overhead strike and started preparing his full strike. A ray of crimson thunder-like light was released from the blade as pure magic power was transformed into pure power by the blade, but in contrast to how it originally was now it also released a ray of holy light and silverish flames that came out of Argetlan. The holy energy Castiel had, the flame power of the star carried by Argetlan, and the magic energy with the unlimited amount by his magic core, all three were uniting as one and being amplified further and further by Clarent. The energy was easily comparable to the one coming from Nico's strike, especially when the three colors of energy fused together to create a crystalline-like red beam of concentrated energy.

The two glared at one another, knowing that this was simply too much for any spar but neither would accept backing down or show weakness. The two were Warriors, not just normal civilians, with a lot of pride and this ambiguous situation that deciding who is the stronger was still on the air was something neither of them would accept.

With this in mind, both teens raised their blades backwards, rearing their attacks back.

"You ready?!"

"That's my line!"

Both unleashed their own respective war cries before they launched their attacks. Each one looked like it would cause extreme amounts of damage not to the users, but to their surroundings including the entire dimension as well. Such was the level of power that these attacks had reached.

Just before they could though...

"Alright, I think you two ave gone far enough."

Another voice broke through to them making the two males go wide-eyed in surprise. The source appeared before the two attacks from the side, simply glaring at the attacks. That glare alone destroyed the attacks, leaving nothing left of them. "I'd rather you two NOT destroy each other and my pet project. I do need my two beta testers' after all."

'Shit, I didn't even sense his presence...' Nico thought, eyes wide as he mentally checked his reserves. Looked like he still had a flicker of power in both his energy sources left, enough to remain transformed for a good 10 minutes. 'I knew he must have been powerful when I met him before, but geez...!'

"*sigh* I guess that is it, huh?" Castiel said, relaxing enough to dispel his armor but leaving his wings open. No point in taking then in if they didn't had any draw back anymore, they simply helped him to fly and some little things, they were not like Nico's DPU form that had to be dispelled since it consumed energy to maintain. Castiel then turned to Nico and said. "No hard feelings for me trying to kill you, I hope."

Nico could only release a chuckle, it is like Castiel had multiple personalities or something, he could go all serious, then be kingly, and now he seems like a chill dude. In all honesty Nico rather liked it this way, different actions to different environments.

"Sure, no problems." Nico said before turning to Zelretch and said. "I am just surprised you could stop both attacks with a stare, was it a secret technique?"

Zelretch looked surprised before giggling and saying.

"Nope, I just released a fraction of my power and tried to copy Jiren from Dragon Ball Super. To be honest I just had to think to stop this attack and that would have been enough, but it was fun to imagine myself like a buffy alien."

Nico could only release lot's of cold sweat from this. If it was true that Zelretch could stop all of that energy with just a thought then he simply was too much of a monster. He went straight to the new list of his mind, one entitled 'Never to piss off'.

"Anyway," Castiel said, drawing the attention of the two other people there. "Now that we finished the introductions and everything how about you tell us what are these things you want us to test, uncle Zelretch."

"Excited, aren't you? Wanting to grow strong already to deal with those problems?" Zelretch asked, but seeing the fire in Castiel's eyes was answer enough. "Fine, this is how this will work-"


	88. cross-over chap 3

"This is how it works. There are a total of 5 'floors' for you two to challenge, each floor has its own unique characteristics and enemies inside and if you can finish the floor you will receive a reward equivalent to how well you went. The reward is determined by how many points you can get, and the points come from killing the enemies. But, the most important is that there is a Floor-Master, an ultimate challenge for you to face. If you two can beat this floor master you can obtain a special item or more points to buy more regular items, whatever you want really." Zelretch explained to both young men.

This was quite similar to most RPGs out there, the main difference being that it was a Zelretch's approved 'game' so it would never be THAT straightforward.

Nico, having returned to human form to maintain power till he had a chance to have some items, heard it all and nodded. This seems like it would be quite interesting. Maybe he could sharpen his abilities further there.

' **Nico, ask about those rewards now.** 'Biko said.

'Why the hurry? We haven't even entered the floor yet and if we are too focused on the rewards we might face some problems later on.' Nico countered. He had already seen this sort of situations way too much, a rookie that was too excited about the reward and lost focus when he shouldn't have. And Nico was no rookie.

' **Nico, this man can travel through parallel dimensions so maybe he has that pill we are looking for.** 'Biko said, earning a raised eyebrow from Nico. It was just then that Nico realized the truth of these words, maybe he could get the Rebirth Nirvana Pill here because goddess knows when he would get another chance elsewhere.

'Okay.' Nico answered to Biko before turning to Zelretch and saying.

"I get what you mean, but can we at least know what the different rewards are?" Nico asked, with which Castiel only shocks his head. Castiel was much more used to Zelretch's excessively large treasure collection so if he really could get anything in there he already knew that it would be quite valuable, so there would be no point in wanting to see it now. If anything for Castiel who doesn't have an exact objective right now it would simply be a waste of time, and so he simply sat on the floor and started meditating about the fight he just had to visualize how it could have gone differently.

"Okay, here is a list." Zelretch said as he took out a book with MANY pages.

Nico looked at this and could not help but think that this was just too much. It probably meant that most of this treasures were nothing that special. Well, he thought that until he opened the book.

 _The golden fleece - A healing item that can heal virtually every wound and is continuously active, it can also make plants grow faster and, if someone wears it, it heals any wound at incredibly high speeds;_

 _Moku Moku no Mi - a special fruit that after eaten can turn the user's body into smoke. The user then can become nearly invulnerable to any attacks that don't carry heavy amounts of magic or special energy, while also allowing for the user to expand his body and fly by using its new power. A weakness is that the user cannot swim no matter what;_

 _Cloak of Invisibility - a cloak that can turn the user invisible for all visual effects, no matter how good or mystical a vision may be there simply won't be a chance of seeing the user. However, it cannot hide smell or sound;_

 _Bashosen - A fan that allows for the use of powerful attacks from all elements, the only real drawback is how it drains considerable energy from the user but the sheer fact that it grants high versatility and allows for using any element and attack instantly by simply waving the fan is more than compensation enough;_

 _Legendary Hero's Sword - a legendary sword that continuously grows stronger by being fed materials and other swords. There is no absolute limit to how strong it can get and the only limitations are the necessity of having a strong enough body to support new forms for the sword (with more materials new forms are unlocked) and to have the right materials;_

 _One Moon Divine Medicine - A pill that can elevate the amount of Ki of anyone by a large margin. It is to such a point that even someone who never trained can have more ki in their bodies than a genius that trained his whole life non-stop until he was over thirty. There are no big drawbacks except for the high amount of new energy that the one eating said pill must distribute and be ready for._

 _Kido Manual - A manual of how to use soul energy to attack with special spells that focus on direct physical combat. It has a total of 99 spells and can be learned with relative ease by anyone, it can be divided in Bakudou (defensive and sealing spells), Hado (offensive and destructive spells), and Kaido (healing spells)._

 _The Midnight Lost Child (Reiji Maigo) -_ A spher _e of pure energy that replenishes ones own energy reserves, but only if the reserves haven't been completely exhausted. Only works every midnight._

 _Shingan ( Mind's Eye) - A ring that allows its user to read as well as transmit thoughts to people nearby. Its user can choose whose thoughts to read, but not which thoughts to read._

 _Seimei Kikan - Tome - A technique which allows the user to control their hair and bodily functions. Something like this could be used in conjunction with his Kagune, especially its morphing ability. using it to make a numerous amount of thin Kagune strands to trap his enemies, then strike them down with the main Kagune or something else sounded too useful to ignore._

 _Nirvana rebirth pill - A pill that destroys the user's everything and then reconstructs them from the ground up. The destruction is absolute and is insanely strenuous to the intaker's body. The result, however, is that the user will undoubtedly grow physically and mentally stronger but wil also have greater potential and most abnormalities that work against the user's well being are undone and remade to work for the user instead of against him. It also raises the sensitivity of the one using it to make detecting, understanding, and using attacks that much smoother._

 _Horn of the Goblin General - it allows the one using it to summon an army of goblins to their command. This army will follow all orders and are organized and equipped with great weapons and excellent coordination to the point that all possible divisions and even strategists are present. In terms of power, they can possibly overthrow a weak nation by themselves and are capable and knowledgeable in all forms of warfare. Each individual goblin is also capable of growing stronger, the only drawback is the food to feed this army._

He could only imagine what his Desecration ability could do to improve these items further.

But, like Zelretch said, it all depends on what amount of points he got at the end. If he got the wrong amount, then he could end up with something unlike what he was aiming for, not something he liked to think about.

"Would we have a period of rest between trials? Or would we be taking them non stop?" Nico questioned. It would only make sense to ask that as simply having them compete nonstop without rest would, while increase their stamina, be a bit too un-beneficial for the beta testers in the long run. He could keep himself going with demonic power and his RC Cells, but they were practically at rock bottom for him at this point.

Perhaps he could take some healing Items from his Void Storage soon.

"Sure, you two have two weeks to complete as much of the five trials as you can. Please go right ahead and entertain me." Zelretch said, and just as he was about to teleport away.

"I have something to ask." Castiel said.

"Shoot." Zelretch answered, a smile on his face. He knew Castiel well enough to know that he would not simply let things like this.

"I want to know if it would be possible to get a few points before we begin. It is normal to have at least a few points before the first mission anyway so I think this should be alright, what do you say uncle Zelretch." Castiel said, earning a raised eyebrow from Nico and a surprised face from Zelretch.

"How could I have forgotten that?!" Zelretch said in mocking shock, which earned a roll eye from Castiel. "Sure, 1000 points each. But be careful with what you will buy since you might need this points later on. And here is the list of what you can buy with just points." Zelretch said as he gave the two young man a list.

The two started looking at it with rapt attention before each decided in what they would want.

"I want 1 vial of Phoenix tear (250 points, capable of healing flesh wounds), a spirit calming pill (500 points, capable of calming the spirit and revert the overheating of magic circuits and magic core), and three blood replenishing pills (50 points each, capable of replenishing the blood lost swiftly)." Castiel said, keeping the last 100 points for later use. From what he saw on this list there were a few must-have items here that he needed much more than new weapons or techniques.

"I'll have 3 blood refreshing pills (50 points each - 150 in total). Don't need much else since I have my own supplies." Nico stated, downing a Healing bottle which revitalized his injuries along with a Nep Bull EX, which fully restored both his SP and Demonic Power Reserves. Though, he didn't expect that last bit. 'Well, what do you know? Looks like it really does heal everything...'

their requested Items soon replaced the list they were holding in a bright flash, of which Nico and Castiel stored them away for later.

After the two made their purchases they looked forwards towards the oldest male in the area. Castiel was the one who asked what would be the first challenge.

"Simple, the first one is a challenge of the EARTH. You just have to go until the pyramid on the center of the desert and defeat the boss there, oh and do remember that special actions can give unique rewards." Zelretch explained, clearly enjoying all this way too much.

With that the two boys were directed to a portal, their first mission was about to start.

* * *

"Fuck, I have sand in places I didn't even know it was possible TO have." Castiel complained for the 100th time as he moved in the desert sands. If anything the two could only think that it was good that Castiel's rune-craft could produce water because they were walking for over two hours already and there still could not see themselves approaching the pyramid in the distance.

While Castiel was complaining like hell, Nico ignored it as he gauged their surroundings, making sure to not let anything escape his gaze. He couldn't sense anything nearby, at least nothing hostile, and with his Bracers Motion Tracker there wasn't any hostiles making their way to them. It wouldn't be good if they couldn't react to an enemy ambush, especially in a wide open space like this.

Up in the distance, the far, far distance, the two boys could vaguely make out the silhouette of a pyramid, as well as a bunch of green to signify the forest. Though, no matter how much they walked it just never seemed to get closer.

Raising his Bracer, Nico activated the Void Storage on mental command, quickly summoning a bottle of water. "Want some?" he questioned to his sole other companion so he would stop complaining.

Castiel looked at him weirdly, eyebrow arched. "Just what kind of stuff do you have in there? And thanks by the way." he replied, accepting the offered bottle and downing it in one gulp. He even refilled it with runecraft water so he could have some more later. Castiel was never really one to carry much with him as he usually would just take care of what he needed on the spot. In the worst case scenario, he would simply use his runecraft for water and he could last around 1 week without food and not affect his combat capacity by much thanks to his training in survival. Travel light and move fast when in a mission was his motto most of the time.

"You'd be surprised at how much I have to stock up." Nico replied dryly, before looking around the Desert. If they kept going like this they would waste too much time which could be better used in completing the five trials. They needed a better mode of transportation, Castiel probably wouldn't be able to fly thanks to the apparent restriction to flying that was placed here, they would have to pray for the restriction to flying be lifted while in a fight or it would complicate matters by quite a lot. It was while Nico was thinking in efficient ways to travel on this desert that the figurative light bulb erupted in his head as he palmed his left hand, a look of 'oh, right!' on his face. "Aha! I MIGHT have an idea." he stated, getting Castiel's attention.

"Yea?"

Without replying, Nico pulled out Harvester from his Void Storage, and used its power to summon one of his shadow monsters. The one he chose was that Wolf-like one, which appeared in front of them. This one however, was made without any battle capacity and the only skill it had was move through the sand and earth as fast as possible. Due to its giant weakness and incapacity of fighting the creature was even faster on the ground.

Nico never really had the need to summon one of them before, using Harvester's SHADOW PACK thanks to already having his bike, but considering how it did not work well on the sand and that flying was not really an option this worked well enough, plus he had felt the Devil Arm's desire to be useful in this situation. Not only that, but he was used to utilizing the whole amount of the creatures Harvester's SHADOW PACK ability granted, one of them barely even nicked his reserves.

"Okay, why the hell didn't you do this earlier?!" Castiel asked as he hopped onto the back of this creature, not at all disturbed by the other being capable of creating this beast. He already knew someone with a similar skill and at least Nico was better than the other person he knew, at least Castiel felt no need to try and kill Nico, something that the other person could brag to be on the 'to kill list'.

Nico bluntly responded while flipping onto its back, keeping his eyes forward, the wind ruffling his Trench Coats' sleeves as the creature launched itself from the ground at extreme speeds. "I was too busy hearing you complain while doing nothing. You really complain about things too much, maybe you should hear others more."

Castiel only responded with an eye roll, trying to keep it together and not explode at Nico for some words that at the moment were not the best for personal reasons. They then continued racing across the forest at top speed.

* * *

Approaching the forest at last, both boys looked up at the Pyramid.

"Whew, we're here at last..." Castiel remarked, sighing in relief when Nico made the creature slow down. Castiel raised an eyebrow and asked, even if already could imagine the reasoning. "Why are we stopping?"

"Simple, we don't want to alert the wildlife as much as possible. We need to understand our enemy before anything else." Nico said, and by then they already were close enough to the forest to go by walking.

"I see your point, and I do agree that it is important to try and not alert them that much, but I think this would be a waste of time." Castiel rebuked. "For Zelretch to put them here it means that they are strong and capable enough, they also are in a closed environment with no contact with whatever you or I am so we would be a completely different being in here. I don't know about your dimension, but on mine, there are places like this, separate spaces with no contact with any external life form and that live in harmony, however you can trust me in that they might have a balanced ecosystem right now but the moment we enter we are fucked. To live in the wild like this their noses and ears must be particularly good, maybe they can also sense ground vibrations so sneaking on them would be easier said than done."Castiel explained as he finished his analysis.

Nico hummed thoughtfully at those words, processing them in his mind before he decided to agree with the guy. It made sense, what he said, certain Abnormals back home have adapted to different environments. He had to say, he was impressed. He doesn't know anything about Castiel but from his battle powers and this analysis alone he could say that he would most likely be a Spec-Ops in his home dimension.

* * *

After that talk the two stayed close to the borders of the forest to set up camp. The two talked and agreed that entering like this would not be on their best interest, they had to first and foremost watch the ambient and try to identify the creatures that lived in there They had to understand what they would be facing and what they could do and what they could not do.

Right now, they stood within a small clearing, discussing on what to do next. Nico's Bracers didn't pick any hostiles up with their Motion Trackers, so that was a thing.

"We need to scout the forest, do you have any solution for that?" Nico asked after he released his Recon Drone from his Void Storage, but saw that said drone could not even take flight. This would be quite the headache for Nico since he did not want to waste energy on making shadow creatures that would most likely die before obtaining any useful information.

"Well, actually I do have something." Castiel said before activating a summoning circle to summon his familiar.

"Eevee!"A loud cry escaped the lips of one of his closest companions, who just appeared from the circle in response to his summons. Eevee was excited beyond belief to see Castiel again. The last time was too much of a scare for the young dog and it would rather never pass through that again.

Castiel could not help but release a few tears of joy from this affection he was receiving. After all that happened to him these last few days, just receiving some affection for being happy to see him meant a lot to the young heir.

Nico did not understand exactly what happened, but what he did get was that this was a moment for the two so he did not intervene or said anything.

"I am so happy to see you Eevee." Castiel said while hugging Eevee. After some time like that Castiel left the dog to go back to the ground before saying. "Eevee, can you go on mode Leafeon and see if you can communicate with those plants. We need to know what sort of enemies we will be facing in there."

"Eevee!" Eevee said happily before the green jewel on his neck shined. His normal features changed, with his fur receding almost completely, his ears and tail looking like big leaves, and leaves sprouting from his legs, chest, and one especially big on his forehead. "Leafeon." Leafeon said before walking to a tree and putting its head on the tree. An aura of nature passing through Leafeon to the tree.

Nico only looked at this without knowing what was happening. He had to ask later what that Eevee thing was all about, and if there was anywhere he could find one. If it truly could identify everything in a forest that easier than it would be invaluable to many of the guild agents and some spec-ops, he doesn't even WANT to know how many promising cadets died before they could reach their full potential due to not knowing what they would be facing.

After a while, Leafeon returned to the two and when Nico was imagining how exactly were they supposed to know what this little guy knew Leafeon changed forms again. The time, instead of returning to the base form he turned into its psychic form Espeon.

Nico had to admit that this one was a truly beautiful creature. He could even visualize Neptune hugging it while trying to force feed a pudding to it while Compa trying to stop her.

Well, those images just went until the moment that Espeon's eyes released a quick shine and a torrent of information entered the brains of both of them. It was not all that there was to the forest but at least they now knew at least some of the details like the geography and some of the animals they would find.

Though with what they learned, it didn't seem good.

"So... Looks like you were right, Emiya." Nico stated as he cupped his chin, frowning thoughtfully. "Looks like the wildlife are already aware of our presence." The reason he says this was because the information transferred to them by Eevee's Espeon form revealed to them that this place was full of various wild creatures, both every kind of animal one could think of in a forest and desert environment. Creatures that were dominated by this one other species. The information about that species was scarce, but they did get brief pieces of information about it. They were mostly small, were fast but not overly so, had great numbers, and were gross.

Not much to go on, but hey that was what recon was for.

"Yep." Castiel boasted proudly, before he became serious once more as he looked about this area. "We should turn this place into our camp for the night. It is a decent location, there's a freshwater stream 4 minutes walking distance to the east (they were in the southern sections of the forest according to Eevee). We can use that for supplies if we ever run low, there are ample vegetation and animals for food, so even if we stay here for a day or two we won't be without resources. I'll set up some bounded fields, they'll repel any lesser animals while informing us if there's anything truly threatening going our way. Plus, I don't know about you but I would rather rest for a while now, it is not like we are running out of time or anything."

Nico thought about it for a moment. While he wanted to get this over with, it would not happen if they didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. His gut instincts told him that they should get to the Pyramid though, since it was at the very center of this forest. In the end, he relented to Castiel's statements. "Affirmative. I shall set about setting up the camp equipment, I have some sets from when I go on longtime jobs for my work." Nico stated, getting a nod from the other super-powered teen as they each set off to commence their respective tasks.

* * *

That night, Nico and Castiel sat on two logs, perpendicular to each other while being around a large bonfire. The Bonfire was powered by Castiel's Runecraft, as while Nico's Hellfire (Castiel almost got accidentally singed when he tried to compare their flames for curiosity's sake, though Nico shared the blame due to being curious himself) offered more heat, it proved to be too powerful for the wood to handle, and thus the Runecraft fire was what they went with. Aside from that incident, there was little else to report on that front.

Nico had set up traps around the camp that would halt those that got past the Heroic Heir's Bounded Fields. Traps that he'd camouflaged by using the wilderness to his advantage while letting Castiel know where they were so he wouldn't fall into them. Though, he did say how he would be able to sense the traps having done training in creating and disarming them as a kid.

Right now, the two just stared at the burning wood that Nico carved from some trees with his Kagune, Castiel having Eevee sleeping on his lap in an adorable looking fashion. Nico himself had Rebellion resting on his lap while he thought deeply.

This didn't go unnoticed, however. "You thinking about what we're supposed to do here?" Castiel asked him, to which he got a silent nod in return. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'd say that Pyramid has something to do with it."

"Agreed, I thought so the moment I saw it. However, judging by what your friend said..." Nico replied, slightly nodding towards the sleeping Eevee who snored quietly. "It seems that we will encounter heavy resistance from the local wildlife."

Nodding as well, Castiel cupped his chin as he pondered this information. "Yeah, I can see that happening, we are a foreign animal intruding on this previously stable ecosystem after all. They will likely see us as a threat until we finish the trial. Still, if we want some form of an answer, maybe heading to that pyramid tomorrow would be our best bet. Perhaps we can gain some form of a clue there, uncle does love his phoetic justice and this over the top situation just screams that it is the next step."

That was just what Nico had been thinking. "Agreed. I can make sure we don't get ambushed by using my Holomap and Motion Trackers. In addition, it would be wise to consider moving stealthily through the trees, making fewer vibrations which will lessen the chance of us being discovered."

"What, like a ninja or something?" Castiel joked, smirking in amusement at the idea of doing ninja work as he honestl doubted he could do even half a decent job. Just the thought of the seemingly calm collected red haired teen before him doing that made his day.

Arching a brow, Nico nodded at him while he tried to figure out why Castiel said that the way he did. "You could say that." he remarked slowly and carefully. "However, if hostile contact proves unavoidable, some quick and silent killing techniques should be applied. I have my Rebellion, my Kagune and my Sword Techniques, what about you?"

"I've got some silent killing moves of my own." Castiel replied with confirmation, which ended the conversation for a while as the two stared down into the flames. Thoughts of what they planned for the following day filled their minds, occupying them for the longest time.

That is, until Castiel looked to Nico and examined his energy. He had noticed it before, how dark the energy was compared to Devil's magic. It was much darker, denser, and more potent, to the point where it even surpassed that of a Demon's. Call him crazy, but that kind of power wasn't that well known where he came from, so he wanted to know how the heck Nico got his hands on it.

"Say, dude. Quick question."

"Yeah?"

"Are you either a Devil or a Demon?"

Not expecting THAT question, Nico looked up at him in slight surprise and bafflement. A rather weird mix which formed on his features, before Nico composed himself and asked a question back. "That's... a rather strange thing to ask someone. The way you seem so nonchalant too... why is that?"

"Oh, its because where I come from we have all kinds of races, Devils, Demons, Yokai, Angels, Fallen Angels, Fishmen, Demi-Gods, etc. Yet you have energies in you that aren't quite like those, so I'm just curious." Castiel replied, though Nico detected a brief spike of anguish when he said the 'Angel' word. He resolved not to ask till much later though.

However, this information about his companion intrigued the Spec Ops Agent, if what he was saying was correct (and he could sense no negative emotions like deceit in his being which indicated that he was being truthful) then perhaps speaking to him about this would be okay. 'What do you think, Biko?'

 **'It would be an interesting change of pace. This one is not of our world, and judging by what we have seen he seems to be fairly open-minded. In addition, he is not of our world, thus our concerns needn't apply.'** Biko replied, solidifying his decision.

'Very well, hope this doesn't come back to me...'

That was his thought before letting out a sigh. "Well, its a long story, but i'll summarize it for you." Nico began, Castiel shifting in his seat on the log so he was more comfortable. "I'm what is known as a DPU, a Demon Patron Unit. You could say I'm sort of a Demon God or a demonic deity, though I originally was human." he explained. "Before you ask, I'll say this: I was human once, but a while ago I came into contact with this crystal called a DPU Core, which entered my body and turned me into a DPU. Ever since, I've had to train in these new powers lest they take control and try to devour me till I'm nothing but a shadow of my former self."

"... Huh. Well, that explains that." the Heir responded after a moment of silence. "But are you sure? I mean, the gods in my world give off way more power than you do. I'd say you wouldn't even be counted as the lowest ranked deity if I used my world's measuring stick."

Nico responded without giving away what he felt at that statement while gazing into the flames, memories passing through his mind. "That would be accurate, as I am merely on the lowest end of the DPU Spectrum. Low-class DPUs like me still have the effect of destroying Continents though if push comes to shove, so do not think of me as weak. Low Class DPUs can barely be called such under normal ratings. Mid Class DPUs can destroy multiple continents with their powers, which is why they are called 'Multi-Continent' Class, and there are High Class DPUs, or as they liked calling themselves the Chaos Class. Basically their powers are so great that their actions have various impacts on reality and space itself. And above them is the Ultimate Class, which only four DPUs, the original four, have been able to access due to having gained the perfect understanding of 1 of the 4 Edicts of the universe."

"The four Edicts?"

"Hm, These are the four Primordial energies that embody the concepts of destruction, death, life and fate. Each of them give those that understand how they work the absolute control of each of those concepts. For example, those who go the path of the Edict of Destruction gain the ability to destroy anything they want, as in LITERALLY anything. They can manipulate destruction, delaying/hastening when destruction happens, speeding/slowing down destruction, determine what parts of anything should be destroyed. There is literally nothing they cannot destroy. The Edict of Life allows the user to manipulate the life of a living things, granting extra lives, change the lifespan, grant life to anything, resurrect/reincarnate dead, as well as complete control over it. On the opposite side of it is the Edict of death, which controls every aspect of Death you can imagine, death causes, the events leading to death, sensing when death is to take another victim, recreate causes for death, promote death in certain areas, this Edict is super dangerous in that it gives the users complete control over it. Not even gods can escape it. Lastly, is the Edict of fate, which gives the user the ability to create, control, manipulate whatever, the absolute control over someone's fate. Users are able to perceive, shape and manipulate destiny allowing them to affect reality in several ways both overt and hidden. They can tell ones fate, change fate, deny fate, they have complete control."

At the end of that lengthy explanation, Castiel didn't look too good. In fact, it would make sense to say that he was as pale as a ghost at the powers these Edicts possess. "Geez. These things sound dangerous... especially in the wrong hands."

Nico could only chuckle without mirth, his eyes darkening. "That's actually ironic of you to say, considering that my main enemy is the DPU of death himself, having been freed o run rampant across my dimension. Odds are I'll likely have to face the DPUs of Life and Fate as well, but that's a story for another now, we should get some rest, it won't be long before we head out, so let's take a short rest. Also, we have 2 weeks to complete these trials, and something tells me that they will vary in both time consumption and difficulty."

"Amen to that."

* * *

An hour later, Nico and Castiel woke up and quickly gathered their weapons. Nico didn't need any, but during their prep, Castiel made time for some quick grub before heading out (though he wished he could have some pudding right about now. He missed his beloved treat). They had to be prepared for any confrontations they might have with the inhabitants of this forest on their way to the Pyramid. There was no telling what they would find there, after all.

Also, Castiel had his first experience with Nico's hooded mask appearance where he lifted his Trench Coat's hood out of the compartment, put it over his head, then donned a Mask. The Mask covered the lower half of the human face. Being black in color with a leather-like feel to it. it had a lipless mouth which was frozen into a maniacal grin, befitting someone who had been to an insane asylum and back again. The Mask's eye-patch attachment was of the same material and covered the right eye, with a band that when it was on, it would be like it was part of the Mask. On the sides of the Mask where the Jaw would be, there were a pair of bolts, like the tops of screws.

His reaction: wow, a Jason wannabe.

They had decided to leave the came as it was since Castiel's Bounded Fields would keep away unwanted visitors, as well as Nico's traps. Also, it would be nice to have a place to fall back to where they WOULDN'T likely be swarmed by hostiles, take a breather, and discuss battle plans. Both of them agreed on that part, with Castiel reinforcing the Bounded Fields just in case, and with that, the two rushed off.

In current times, the two were jumping through the trees like the ninjas from Naruto, their forms blurry to the naked eye as they made their way to the Pyramid, with Nico at the front since he was using his Holomap to guide them. While they had a fairly good idea of the Forest's geometry thanks to Eevee (whom Castiel had decided to send back till he would need him again) it would be best if they had a more... physical source of information on where they needed to go. Good thing Nico had his Holomap, otherwise it would be a lot harder.

Well, there WAS the fact that the Pyramid was so large that it overlooked the entire forest, but meh that was just a thing.

While the two jumped through the trees, both teens kept their senses sharp and alert, in case they got ambushed by some ferocious predator. It wouldn't be good if something like that got the drops on them, especially when they weren't aware of the full powers these creatures possessed. It was like Castiel had told Nico before, these creatures have lived her in an undisturbed environment for a long time, and they were the foreign parties here. They would likely be targeted outright and if they knew Zelretch like they thought they did then those creatures would be super powerful... not to mention lethal to their health.

"Say, Emiya!" Nico began suddenly, getting the young Heir's attention.

"Yeah?"

"I have a question for you, since you asked me one yesterday."

"Alright, shoot."

"How long have you known that Zelretch guy for?"

Castiel honestly thought he was going to ask about his nature like he had done the previous night, but not this. Well, he felt glad t that since he didn't want to think about that can of worms right now. The wounds were still fresh after all, and Zelretch wasn't so sensitive a topic. "All my life. He's my godfather, though I call him Uncle. He does try to get me to call him 'my favorite person in the world Zelretch' but nope. Not in a million years." At that, Castiel couldn't help the fond smile that spread across his lips. Memories of his godfather flowed through his head (the ones that involved family bonding, not the tormen... I mean training that puts the rest of his teachers to shame). "Why do you ask?"

"Honestly, I'm trying to figure out why he would bring someone like me here." was what Nico replied with. One branch he landed on was too thin and broke under his weight, but the teen flipped into the air and then landed on another one like it didn't even matter. Though, both winced at the sharp sound the snapping made. "I can understand you, since you're his godson and all, but why did he bring me here? Not like I have much of a connection to the guy."

Castiel rolled his eyes at this information, though he didn't do it to be insulting. It was a legit question if one doesn't know how Zelretch operates, and even as his godson the young Heir sometimes didn't understand him. "Well, you could ask him when we finish these trials, then. Don't worry, he won't bite. But, a fair tip to you, I wouldn't bother asking. There is no point in trying to understand chaos, after all, chaos is just what it is." he joked at the end with a lopsided smirk.

'This guy reminds me a bit of Team RAIL's Lucy, Ivan and Aiden mashed together...' Nico thought to himself while taking his turn to roll his unmasked eye. Though, a similar smirk found its way onto his lips. He had actually thought about asking Castiel a different question about his true nature like he had done last night, but then he remembered the brief spikes of negative emotions when he listed them too, thus had changed his question. "Maybe. Let's just focus on the task at hand. I don't sense anything heading our way, Motion Trackers read no hostiles either, you?"

"Nothing's coming up on my radar. I get the impression that the forest isn't as 'alive' through the day as it is through the night."

"Well, let's trust your gut, in my experiences the gut is the best thing to listen to when in situations like this."

"Yeah, ain't that the truth."

* * *

It was honestly a miracle that they hadn't encountered anything, but that fact formed at the back of their minds as they finally reached the entrance to the Pyramid... which looked to be blocked off by some sort of magic-based barrier. It formed as a wall of pure goldish energy, with what Castiel recognized as Magic Circles scattered around larger version at the center. Though, he did find the symbol on the center of each of them to be fairly familiar.

"Hmmm... looks like we can't proceed without breaking this barrier...' Nico remarked thoughtfully as he cupped his chin under a leather gloved hand, eyeing the barrier intently.

"Seems so. Doesn't look like a normal barrier, either. Feels like a Bounded Field of some sort, though." Castiel added on, doing a similar pose. He looked across the barrier, before his eyes narrowed when he noticed something. "Hey, you see those? aren't they... symbols?"

Nico looked to where Castiel had gestured, and true enough there were some strange pictures designed into the barrier They were of various shapes and sizes, but to Nico... "This looks... almost like a language." he noted, thoughtfully as he proceeded to Scan them with his Bracers. "I'll see if I can decode it, but let's see if we have other ways just in case I can't."

While nodding to the red head's statement, the young Heir cast his eyes over the symbols, and for a moment he thought he felt something familiar about them. It wasn't till he leaned forward to get a better look that he realized why that was. "Hey, I know this language!" the teen exclaimed, getting a surprised look as well as one of intrigue from his companion. "It's ancient Egyptian, a language from my country. Though it's not used anymore by the masses, I still learned about it growing up as the Heir to the Tower."

"Can you read it?"

"My Ancient Egyptian isn't too bad, but I may be a bit rusty. Even so, I can try..." Castiel replied, he had long since studied virtually any language he could catch his hands on as a way to search old documents about any possible way to get stronger. The heir analyzing the symbols like a scholar would ancient artifacts. "Hmm... looks like in order to break this barrier, we must first find this thing called the 'Bracelet of Anubis'. Apparently, this thing is the key to this Pyramid, and is also the way to enter the 'Tomb of the Scorpion... King... Oh, ok seriously Uncle?"

"What is it?"

"Oh, its nothing..." Castiel replied, though Nico didn't look like he believed it. So, he decided to elaborate a bit. "Let's just say that Uncle Zelretch likes older movies way too damn much." With that though, Castiel shook his head before turning around to look upon the forest. "Anyways, we have our objective. In order to get in, ww have to locate this Bracelet of Anubis. According to those symbols, its located within the camp of the living dead which are said to be most active at night."

Looking down at his Bracer, Nico brought up the time and furrowed his brows in concern. "We don't have very long, then, cause the sun's going to show up in an hour. What's the play?"

"From what we know, we'll have to lure our prey from hiding. Odds are they're using the wilderness to their advantage since none of the plants had much clue about what these guys are. All they gave us was the geometric layout and the general appearance of the wildlife. I could search this forest with Magecraft, but it would take forever and Eevee would lose all his energy before we Even get a lick of information."

At this information, Nico cupped his chin some more, as an idea hit him seconds later. "I can do something about that." he said, drawing Castiel's attention as the young Heir turned to him. "I can summon some Shadow Monsters and have them head into the forest, cause a disturbance. Odds are, these creatures will want to know what the disturbance is, and for good measure I can summon multiple SHADOW PACKS with a few SHADOW SERPENTS among them. That way we cover more ground." He then raised his Bracer and activated the Holomap function. "I'll keep track of them with this. Once Harvester feels them get destroyed, we can get a better idea of where these 'undead' are located and we can press forward from there."

"Wait, I have a better idea." Castiel suddenly interjected before Nico could summon his Devil Arm. This prompted his companion to look back to him, the young Heir lowering his hand as he held the palm upwards. From there, the same magic circle Nico had seen before a certain summoning appeared, and in a flash, Eevee appeared. The little Familiar squealed in joy at seeing his master, who had a similar expression on his face.

That expression morphed into a serious one, and the Familiar instantly became aware that this was serious business. "Eevee, Flareon mode. Use your fire to burn this forest to the ground." he commanded, getting a nod from Eevee who flipped off his master and landed on the ground. A vortex of flames rose upwards from around its feet the moment it landed, and in moments, it faded away to reveal Eevee's Flereon form.

Quickly turning to the forest, Flereon reared its head back, took a deep breath before unleashing a torrent of orangish-red flames from its mouth, streaking through the forest and burning everything in sight. Flareon shifted his head about to get every bit of forest as it could, resulting in the forest before them becoming nothing but a sea of flame that would eventually consume the entire forest.

'Okay... that is impressive...' Nico thought to himself as he watched the flames. They seemed hotter than the flames Castiel had used on him during their sparring match, but nowhere near the levels Hellfire could reach. Still, they seemed hot enough to cause a forest fire which must be what Castiel was aiming for. Thus, he didn't need to ask what his end game was.

Glancing at his right hand, Nico brought it to his chest level and looked down at his palm. By his will, a ball of Hellfire appeared in all its orangish red splendor. The ball fluctuated wildly and chaotically, the male's will being what restrained its innermost violent nature. He kept it in check while he examined it, before he projected a question to his Demon Persona. 'Say, Biko, I probably shouldn't add this to the mix, should I?'

 **'I wouldn't call that a wise action, yes Nico. Those flames may not be at their strongest, but they will definitely devour everything they touch much faster than these flames could ever hope to. Thus, if they were released, they could destroy even what we need to acquire.'**

'Right good call.' The teen thought back, clutching his fist and dispersing his Hellfire.

* * *

It didn't take long for things to... get maybe a LIIIIIITLE too out of hand though.

The reason why this was so?

Simple:

Because a whole HORDE of creatures poured out of the flames, burning and cawing as the flames licked away at their flesh making them look all the more sinister. This horde consisted of 40 giant centipedes. 60 large frogs with slitted eyes, 20 four-armed Gorillas, and 70 small creatures that looked like a mix between undead and Pygmies...

Undead Pygmyes...

...Gross.

Nico quickly face palmed at this revelation, biting back the urge to groan. 'I am strangely starting to feel the same way about Zelretch as Emiya over there.' he thought to himself in a mix of irritation and frustration.

Though it couldn't be helped now, especially since they had drawn a crowd. Looking into their ranks, both boys noticed that there were a bunch of larger undead pygmies, at least rivaling Castiel in height with long crooked swords. These versions hunched over, growling and snarling ferally while glaring at them with empty eye sockets. They didn't look at all bothered by the flames, either, in fact none of the undead mummies did. They just moved like they weren't being burned alive while the animals looked like they were about to keel over.

Within the group of larger Pygmies, there was one that was a full head taller than them, wearing primitive-looking Armour that shielded it from the flames while sporting an equally primitive-looking shield and sword combo. On its right arm, there lay something that made it stand out even more, however: a golden Bracelet with the statue of a Scorpion on it.

"Looks like we have our target..." Nico noted, gesturing to the armored Pygmy. He also deployed his Armour, clenching his fists and activating his Obliteron claws. He could feel his inner Ghoul stirring at the prospect of combat at last, and it was a good thing to since he planned on utilizing his Bikaku in this fight.

Castiel nodded in agreement, already drawing Hruting while Flareon returned to Eevee form and vanished once more. "You're right. Can you do something about these numbers? Thin the herd a little?"

Nico just smirked behind his helmet. "Oh yeah, I can do that. You take out the bodyguards then we take on the leader together?"

"Sure."

After this decision, both males smirked to each other, like fellow predators agreeing to work together on a single hunt, before they went their separate ways.

* * *

On Nico's end, the male proceeded to walk leisurely towards his opponents, his Helmet hiding the predatory look in his eyes as he felt the signature signs of a Kagune being readied within him. "Sorry boys... nah, not really." he stated darkly. The Kagune got released moments later as his Bikaku Kagune, but unlike before when he fought Castiel, Nico now had fur Tails of the same appearance as before swishing behind him, before pointing their tips towards his enemies.

See, while his Rinkaku specialized in silently killing his opponents, although it was no slouch in the pure combat department, his Bikaku could be counted as his mist destructive Kagune out of the three he had. Bikaku, Rinkaku, and Koukaku were his types, and each of them was super dangerous in their own ways. For example...

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!

In 4 consecutive swishes, all four Tails whipped through the air, their Talons detaching as they got launched like projectiles towards their targets. Each one generated a whistling sound as they broke through the air space between them and their targets, like the coming of aerial bombs. None of them could react in time to what came next, and THAT would be their undoing. Each target ended up exploding into a gory mess when they got hit, holes ripping through their bodies when they got in contact with the Talons like tissue paper as each Talon had the deadly striking power to destroy highways. In essence, they are an equivalent to a pile of jetliners crashing into someone full force.

Thing is, Nico's Bikaku, unlike his Rinkaku, specialized in widespread annihilation, way more so than his DPU Form's prehensile Tail. Its why he preferred the Bikaku to that form's Tail, for the Kagune version was much more versatile. For not only does it's speed rival his Rinkaku, but its space-striking abilities rival that of his sole other unseen Fang, his Koukaku. That means it has both these qualities intensified for its own purposes, a 'you may see them, but you cannot dodge them, you are too slow' kind of situation.

His Bikaku reared backward while there were crackling sounds originating from them, a sign that new Talons were being made from within them. While it wouldn't take long for them to reset (especially since he had been training his Bikaku to shorten the setting time), it didn't mean these babies lost any of their destructive power. Quite the opposite, in fact, they didn't lose anything at all.

Then, as if fate weren't done showing these Monsters just how fucked they were, Nico's Bikaku gained various cracks through them, before each Tail split into 6 longer, thinner versions of themselves with a single set of Talons ready to be launched, as well as single blade tips. This meant that now, Nico had TWENTY FOUR Bikaku Tails swishing behind him like wild vipers, slashing the air around him before they slammed into the ground and then pointed towards his enemies. Each Tail looked poised and ready to crack some heads...

Though that wouldn't be all it would be cracking, and not just cracking either.

These Tails would slash for greater striking power and accuracy as they would be able to cover more angles than their larger forms. Each one moves at super high speed, and every one of them can release their Talons with just as much speed. Arguably, in these forms the Talons were stronger and faster than when they were in their bigger forms. Furthermore, when they hit something, it doesn't matter what, these Tails' Talons detonate and explode, sending shrapnel made from these Talons into their surroundings that make smaller explosions. This ensures that their enemies may have dodged the initial attack (even with how hard that is) but they will still not escape unscathed.

While the Animals instinctively felt like they were in over their heads, Nico slowly walked forwards, his Bikaku rearing back...

Before, like the serpent that it was described as before, striking forth.

* * *

While Nico started to release hell (which was putting it lightly according to what he saw) upon most of the enemies Castiel gave a slight smile.

He admitted that he wasn't that proficient in battling large number of people at once, but practice leads to perfection and with this many facing him at once this would be quite the practice.

'Ok, let's test how ueful my curses can work now that I can put more power into them and don't have to fear accidentally killing someone I sort of shouldn't.' Was what Castiel thought as he connected himself to the source of evil energy on himself. The young Heir had to furrow his brows once he felt the feeling of his evil abilities washing over him like a waterfall. To him, it felt quite different than his angelic powers, those powers came from the magic core inside himself while the source of his Evil Powers felt like it had been scattered all over his soul, almost like broken pieces of glass. Odds were it was thanks to his so called 'mother' for sealing those powers away for so long instead of letting them develop.

This could be seen as one of his objectives for these Trials aside from getting stronger and diversifying his Skills, to try and make this evil source more unified and maybe a bit more powerful in magic energy generation since his angelic core did not give him any energy to use these powers. If one looked at it like weighing grams, then his angelic powers weighed far more than his Evil ones right now, to the point where it would be considered unfair.

" **Betrayal; Rage; Hatred; Confusion.** " Castiel muttered under his breath, yet the words could be heard by every enemy within the vicinity (this effect only applied itself to the enemies since Nico as A: an ally, and B: he was currently slaughtering his foes like someone committing mass genocide) as he used these four curses at once. Individually they are not particularly powerful, but together their effect was truly devastating.

Case in point, how after he activated those curses those who could be seen as 'guards' before slowly turned to their Leader with vengeful eyes, and began attacking their leader out of their own 'free will'. It was even funny in a sadistic fashion, as Castiel did not need to raise a single finger and the number of guards and others around the leader fell just like that, slaughtered by their own kind as they too hurt and damaged their leader immensely.

Like a civilization 'rebelling' against a tyrant.

Seeing the results of his magic Castiel could not help but show a warm and peaceful smile. It was always great to see your enemies dying that easily while not even reaching you. In the end, Castiel might be a wonderful leader and someone that always strove to do his best for the Tower, but he still was more than ruthless enough to deal with any situation that presents itself. Case in point, his severed arm to trade it for the life of a subbordinate and how he decided to use a method now that many would see as underhanded.

He just cared for one thing in a battlefield, to reach the best results with minimal effort and sacrifice. Even his life was put on the balance during battle, anything was allowed in combat, as long as it didn't involve innocents.

When Nico saw this 'fight' between Castiel and the pygnies while glancing to his companion's side of the battle (while his Bikaku tore his opponents to shreds via Talons and sharp whipping motions) he could not help but shiver.

This was undoubtedly a good way to feel with this situation. What's more, part of him couldn't help but wonder what kind of catastrophic damage this ability could do to a large civilian population but imagining this happening to an army or a city was more than the agent would ever want to see.

* * *

After a while, the number of enemies dropped significantly, but those who were left were all wounded and weakened. Either by Castiel's curses or by Nico's Kagune, their foes had little chance of surviving. Not only had they been unable to display what they could do, but neither of the two intruders ion their home had any scratches on them. One because he had been causing them to fight each other in a rather brutal, sadistic and almost tyrant-like fashion, and the other because those long appendages spawning from him were too damn fast, struck so much space, and had deadly ranged Talons that tore through them without mercy.

It was then that the four curses started to stop their effect, Castiel couldn't activate them for long even if he wanted to thanks to the state of his Evil Powers, and so the infuriated monsters started running after him.

"Well, I guess it is time to show some actual work." Castiel said as he proceeded to cast various curses such as **"Slow, weak, Nausea"** which halted his opponents in their tracks and forced them to become vomiting messes. Castiel winced though when he saw hoe they literally vomited what looked like poo from their mouths.

Yuck.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity either, the Heir dashed forth and cut through one Pygmy's shoulder, lopping off its arm before he twirled around and slashed off its head. He then raised Hruting and brought the sword down on another's head, the blood that the blade drunk from those first two slashes amplifying its power enough to smash the second Pygmy Mummy's skull to bits. More blood got offered to the sword, and tit graciously accepted.

Kicking another Pygmy Mummy into the air and jumping after it to avoid two others lunching at him, Castiel slashed at it several times before twisting into a sausage spin and exiting into a Mana-empowered kick that slammed into the Pygmy Mummy's stomach, sending it crashing into the ground with enough force to make it go SPLAT.

Quickly following up his onslaught, Castiel landed on the ground and quickly started scribing Runes on the ground with his feet at high speed as he jumped back while also casting some of his witchcraft.

When the monsters got close enough it was already too late as the runes took effect and multiple roots emerged from the ground, almost like the forest itself was attacking the monsters.

They tried to evade as much as possible, but the number of roots was simply too large and as such the already small numbers dropped roots then began to tighten their grips on their prey, on accordance to Castiel's will which was signified by the clenching of his off hand into a fist. When he instantly applied a burst of strength to his fist a moment later, the roots jerked as well, ultimately crushing the organs of their prey while ripping them to pieces.

In the end only the leader had barely escaped, but it was not for long since it was then that the spell from Castiel was finished and the space around the leader was frozen. This resulted in its feet and legs up to its thighs being encased in a block of ice, much to its shock as it tried to stab away at the ice to set itself free. Shame that A: the sword it used was too primitive to break the Ice, and B...

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!

Nico wasn't that gentle to leave this sort of chance to go unattended.

* * *

Those swishes came from Nico's Bikaku, which had returned to its default four large Tails form. 3 of them had lunged at it, one slicing off its arm, another going for the opposite arm and taking the Bracelet for its master, while the third slashed its head off with a clean cut through the neck. Blood squirted out from these areas like waterfalls as the body slumped forwards, motionless and very much DEAD.

His Bikaku retracted to him, the Tail holding the Bracelet dropping said Item into Nico's waiting hand. Afterward, his Kagune vanished as did his Armour, exposing his hooded, masked form as he held the Bracelet. Looking over to the side, he saw his comrade walking up to him. "Looks like we were able to get the Bracelet this time... though I will admit, I feel kind of let down."

"Agreed, that was too easy..." Castiel remarked with suspicion. The teen held a hand out and Nico quickly understood that he wanted the bracelet, just for analyzing using structural grasping since he was not into Egyptian jewelry. So, the teen made to give it to him by placing it into the outstretched hand... when something happened.

"?!"

"?!"

Both boys gaped when the Bracelet started to vibrate in Nico's hand, almost like it was quivering before it unleashed a bright glow, blinding the two boys and forcing them to cover their eyes.

"What the heck?!"

"Ok, what the hell, Uncle?!"

By the time the light died down, the two boys uncovered their eyes and looked to where it had originated from. Neither of them were prepared to see what they did though: the Bracelet having attached to Nico's left arm over his Bracer, almost as if it had reshaped itself to fit on top of it. "What the...?"

"This is..." Nico began, eyes wide just like his comrade as he and Castiel gazed down at the Bracelet. What the heck had just happened? Why did it attach to his arm like that? Neither of them knew the answer to this, but there was one thing they could do to find out.

Looking over to the redhead, Castiel frowned in concern, pointing to the covered Bracer. "Dude, you think you could scan that? Cause I doubt you can activate your bracer with the way it's looking right now."

"You're right..." Nico replied as he tried to activate it via mental commands. Unfortunately, it didn't respond, almost like something was blocking the Void Module he had installed at Skies End from sending the necessary signals. Activating his right Bracer though, the teen quickly set to work scanning the Bracelet, his eye sharpened like a dagger. This shouldn't have happened, he should have been prepared for something like this. Objects of unknown origin were dangerous to be around, he should know since this lesson was why he had become a DPU in the first place.

Fortunately, the scanning didn't take as long as he thought that it would, and the results showed themselves on a holographic screen filled with writing across it. There was also a big image of the bracelet as well, constantly spinning about from every angle. "Hmm... peculiar." Nico stated as he read the information without missing any detail. Looking up and seeing Castiel's arched brow, he elaborated. "From what my Bracer scans tell me, this Bracelet isn't only a key to this Pyramid, but it has a special microchip inside it meant for downloading information. Which leads onto this next thing I have to do..."

In a few moments of tinkering with his right Bracer's interface, Nico found his Void Storage and sure enough, there was a special icon there that he hadn't seen before. "Aha!" he whispered under his breath with a triumphant glint in his eye. Pressing on the icon, his Bracer soon got a message saying that new information had bee downloaded, and when he pressed the okay next to the message, Everything switched to what looked like a holographic 3D image of the entire Pyramid. "Looks like this information is actually a map, and from what I can see this Bracelet seems to be the key to multiple devices inside it." manipulating the Holographic image, Nico and Castiel saw that the map also contained the whole internal layout of the place's interior. Meaning that they wouldn't begetting lost.

"Looks like we have the main level, an underground level, and then one big level that looks suspiciously like an ancient Egyptian Tomb entrance." Castiel remarked as he looked at the map. This Bracer Nico had looked like something Franky could find use in implementing into his machines, but he chose not to ask since it was already apparent that the guy was too professional to hand out secrets like that so easily. "When we get inside, we can go along this corridor to this big coliseum-like room, which leads to a shorter corridor that ends with a set of spiral stairs. That leads to a series of tunnels and rooms, before it ends up at the entrance to that tomb. Odds are, that's where we need to go."

Nico nodded in agreement, and with that, the two boys started making their way to the Pyramid.


	89. cross-over chap 4

After their planning was completed both young men walked towards the pyramid. The blood filled path that lay before him, caused by both of their efforts, didn't even make them flinch since this was completely normal to the two. Though the many body parts proved annoying when they stepped over them. Part of them wondered if they should burn the corpses and the blood so they didn't have to deal with them, but in the end both boys decided against it.

Moments later, the Pyramid entrance finally came back into view, the structure's massive form looming overhead like a giant. As the two approached the pyramid, Nico shifted his gaze to his companion, a question that he could not help think about escaping his lips. "Say, Emiya?"

"Hm?"

"Hey, how those curses you use work? They seemed much stronger now than before when you used them against me."

Castiel smirked when he heard this. Explaining how his powers worked was not something he normally would do, if anything he would not do it at all if at all possible, but this was a place where there wouldn't be any consequences even if he explained and maybe if he did that he could help the other party to get less wary of him. Plus, it wasn't like he wasn't the only one who explained something about themselves, this guy did so earlier. One could say that this was him getting even.

"My curses are more of a soul and mental attack. They seek to influence others condition and mentality of my opponents with varying effects depending on the Curse, for instance if I were to use the curse hunger on you, you would suffer from a feeling of hunger that would never be satiated. But right now my curses are still too weak and only work for short periods of time, however the period do increase with how mentally weak someone is." Castiel explained. "You shouldn't be that worried, since your mental strength is high so the curses would have a limited effect on you."

Nico nodded, taking in this information as his mind began weaving ideas, plans and examinations about this power. The thing that he did for a lot of weapons, just like his sword. From what he learned, it seemed these curses were like debuffs, and if they were debuffs then the times when he healed himself must be from some form of buffing ability. Its like two sides of a coin, or yin and yang. One half is more on the offensive side and the other is more on the defensive side.

Still, questioning his comrade would confirm more things for him, so he did so.

"But if that is so, how could you influence that many targets at once?" Nico asked while thinking about all the creatures that were influenced at once earlier. He also noticed how Castiel used multiple different curses up until now and how most of them were different. From what he could guess the words he muttered under his breath were part of it, but he had to be sure. "And how many of those curses you can use?"

"Oh, these questions are simple. First they were beasts, they had barely any will beyond their instinct and that made those creatures weak to this form of attack. And about how many I can use, well I suppose it would be all possible evil thoughts or acts a human being can suffer or do." Castiel explained, smirking even more while he put his hands on his hips and puffed his chest out, feeling a bit proud of himself. Talking about his powers helped him to see how he wasn't hopeless and how much he accomplish even with the interference of Gabriel.

At this confirmation, Nico felt a shiver on his back as he heard those words. Looked like he was right, it was for the best that Castiel wasn't in his dimension otherwise this ability alone could cause untold disaster. Just thinking about how chaotic any battlefield would be if Castiel could use this ability liberally was more than the agent wanted to imagine.

 **'With our Demonic Powers, we are safe from those Curses. Our problems would start with those healing abilities, but we can get around that if we ever spar again,'**

'Yes, indeed...'

It was at that time that the two appeared in front of the pyramid, but this time instead of the barrier stopping their progress, it simply deactivated when the two got close enough to it. Looked like it was some form of sensory mechanism, Nico noted. If they went down to the tomb through those corridors, then they would probably face the beings that lurk within.

Castiel saw this take place, and could not help but give a playful smile as he gave a polite bow to Nico, all the while indicating for go ahead as he spoke with a classy accent.

"Ladies first."

TWTCH

Nico's eyebrows twitched as he heard those words. The way that this guy just said that while bowing, like he was a butler, it just grinded away at his nerves like a blade on a whetstone.

'What... did he just...?'

Gripping his fists, Nico slowly spoke while trying to hide his irritation.

"And how exactly am I a lady?"

"Well it is not me who is wearing a golden bracelet, and I was raised to be educated to girls, especially those who like to keep their hair so well treated and long." Castiel said with an honest and serious face, but he was doing his best not to laugh at Nico's face as he said those words.

'AHAHAHAHAAHA, SUCK IT, KING! YOU JUST GOT OWNED!'

'Shut up, you!'

Castiel would pay, oh yeah he would pay DEARLY. He just didn't realize what he had started. There was a reason why the Party he was in back in his dimension knew not to tick him off.

Though, as the saying went, revenge was a dish best served cold.

* * *

Entering the pyramid, Nico and Castiel walked through the corridor in silence. Well, save for the young Heir's slight chuckling as he gave an amused smirk in Nico's direction, and because he was walking in front of him the redhead didn't see it.

Though, a certain pair of aspects sensed the looks he gave.

The Corridor they walked along was illuminated by torchlight, which came from the various torches aligned high up on both walls. They each illuminated the corridor in a brilliant orangish light, some of the walls having animal carvings in them. It gave off this mysterious, ominous and almost scholarly impression to he two boys. The Spec Ops Agent consulted his Holomap the entire time, his senses kept on high alert for any signs of enemies.

"You sense anything up ahead?" Nico asked his companion, who shook his head while ceasing his laughter. It was time to be serious, and serious was something he could do.

"Nope, I got nothing. Something tells me that this place has more than a few surprises up its sleeve though, so lets be on guard." Castiel said. "Just wait a second, I will try something different for scouting."

As Castiel said that he started to release a few bugs made of evil energy, a variation of his normal cursed dragon tooth warriors that was usable for scouting and for small things. It wasn't that strong but it was another interesting thing he developed during his days/months in coma. He had this idea when he remembered Shino Aburame from Naruto and how those insects of his could be dangerous.

After he released those imsects Castiel sat down and waited as multiple magic and mechanical traps were activated one after the other. Castiel's eyes and senses were completely focused on them, trying to discover how they worked and to see if disarming them was possible.

Nico hummed in thought as he watched this play out, slightly more impressed. From the times he saw magic users on his world they were usually quite weak physically and they had the habit of preferring to explode things, diversity was not something many looked into among most magicians in Gamindustri. MAGES. was an unusual mage that actually had more than one or two tricks up her sleeve, but even she obviously paled in comparison to Emiya. The boy seemed to have a wide variety of Spells under his cloak and knew how to use them well, all the while while not neglecting the physical side at all.

'But I am stronger.' Was what Nico thought, which was also reflected in Castiel's way of thinking.

The two were simply full of pride on their respective hard earned powers.

After a while Castiel turned to Nico to tell his verdict.

"From what I see there are about 27 bounded fields in here and expecting easy passage is but a pipe dream. There are also around 14 mechanical traps that could probably kill or incapacitate either of us." Castiel explained, getting a nod of understanding from his companion. "The best option I can think is for the two of us to take different roles right now. I will start disarming the traps as I learned long ago how to do this, but it will take a while that must not be disturbed or I may cause an accident so I will need you to guard me while I am working. Knowing uncle Zelretch the moment I start dissembling the traps something is bound to happen and it will be up to you to stop it."

This made him furrow his brows, both in annoyance and in resignation. He would have asked if there were another way, like the possibility of the Bracelet being able to disarm the Traps. However, Biko had stopped him, informing him that the Bracelet served as a different piece to the puzzle. Not only that, but the Scans from earlier stated that the Bracelet wouldn't stop those traps anyways. "Alright then, i'll form some defenses to guard you. I don't like it, I can see several problems with this plan but seems like this is our only option if we don't want to get sliced to ribbons. While I can heal myself just fine, you seem to require those buffing abilities for yours."

"Well then, lets get started, shall we?"

* * *

The moment that Castiel sat in a meditating position, put his hands together on his lap and closed his eyes to begin the trap disarmament, Nico sprung into action by summoning Harvester and quickly forming a SHADOW SERPENT, which quickly wrapped its body in a protective circle around the young Heir and keeping him protected from approaching attackers.

Attackers that came the second Castiel touched the traps.

From ahead of them, as well as the entrance they had come from, many patches of pure black ooze spilled out onto the floor from within the cracks, expanding across the ground before something began to rise out of each of them. It almost looked like those Demons summoned by those Cultists Nico had fought in the Hellverse Dungeon, only there were way more watery and crackling sounds accompanying these creatures.

In the end, from those patches came what looked like 80 or so humanoid creatures with canine heads, each wearing few bits of cloth-like clothing while carrying an variety of different weapons. 40 were ahead of the m and the remaining 40 populated the entrance the two boys came in from. All of them aimed ravenous glares in Nico's direction, killing intent and bloodlust overflowing from them when they began to charge.

Neither his main or demonic aspect liked the look of those creatures, nor did they like the feelings those two gave off. It was like these creatures wore the aspect of death over them like a cloak or a badge of pride, and considering they had a... not so nice dance with the DPU of death not too long ago,. his distaste for them showed itself to be anything but peachy.

Nevertheless, this was combat, so he quickly assumed the mentality for such an event.

Nico quickly shifted into gear, putting aside whatever questions formed in his mind as he summoned a SHADOW PACK to deal with the ones approaching them from the entrance, while the other side got his personal attention. Nico quickly channeled Harvester's power and used TELEPORT SLASH, appearing in front of them before activating another technique called HARVEST: basically where Harvester's blade turns into a larger, purple astral version of itself as he slashed horizontally, cutting the whole of the pack in half.

The sounds of flesh being torn resonated behind him, and one quick glance revealed that while his SHADOW PACK was inferior in number, the enclosed corridor space allowed them o use the walls and ceilings to their advantage. Quickly, Nico shifted his attention back to his enemies when he heard sounds of movement, only to see how they were still moving using their limbs as support. Needless to say, Nico wasn't too happy about that.

'Tch, tenacious bastards, aren't you?'

 **'Lets try and play some zombie logic and take off their heads. Beheading usually works for most enemies, and I don't sense any regeneration at work with these beings.'**

'Got it.'

With that short conversation, Nico quickly formed a ball of Hellfire, then threw it at the crawling warriors to burn them to a crisp. This attempt succeeded, as nothing, not even scorch marks, were left when the flames were done.

However, before Nico could think that his problems with them were over, the teen noticed twice as many patches forming in the distance, quickly releasing more warriors into the mix. There was about a total of 80 there, which wasn't exactly something the teen wanted for his birthday but hey, what can you do?

'Tch, looks like there's going to be a lot of them...' the redhead Spec Ops Agent thought as he quickly summoned more SHADOW PACK monsters, sending them to reinforce their brethren. Now that he thought about it, the bloodlust in the atmosphere helped him sense how there were more and more warriors like these converging on their position, almost like an unending flood. The sounds of Castiel's actions ringing throughout must have been the trigger, just like he had guessed. He probably couldn't do much else outside the disarming like call on his Familiar, either. After all, he had all his focus on his work right now and to take a break from that wouldn't be wise.

Summoning more Hellfire, Nico threw a dozen or so blasts of it at his enemies, burning them to ashes with nothing left remaining of them. All the while he kept summoning more and more SHADOW PACK Monsters. making sure to keep their numbers up so he only had one side to deal with. Not only that, but he could feel... something, beginning to change within this Devil arm the more he poured his power into it so it had power for its abilities. Just like what happened to Alastor, now that he thought about it, but he couldn't focus on that right now.

More and more enemies kept coming at him in large waves, forcing Nico to expel more and more power from Harvester to deal with them all. He would take out large packs with HARVEST, summon SHADOW PACK Monsters and send excess energy into his SHADOW SERPENT. Nico also had his Harvester use SHADOW ANIMATION to turn his shadow into an Armoured version of himself (his old Armour not his new desecrated version) to help him fight while spamming both his DEATH GRIP and TELEPORT SLASH. It was like literally stemming a never-ending tide of darkness, an evil flood that intended to wash him away without remorse. Well, not if Nico could help it. that was for certain, and right now Harvester was getting more and more of a workout as Nico pumped large amounts of power into it, forcing it to suck up all that delicious power to help fuel and enhance its abilities. If it does start undergoing THAT then all the better.

2 of them closed in on him despite Nico throwing Hellfire at their brethren, forcing the redhead teen to stop his assault temporarily to jab the rear end of his Devil Arm into one's stomach while kicking the other into the ground. He twisted into a beheading slice, taking off its head while using the momentum to make an overhead stab into the other creature's head. Not stopping there, Nico lifted the creature by its impaled head, then had HARVEST activate, blowing the rest of it apart. This allowed him to notice something, something... that he didn't n notice before but now that he noticed now, he realized applied to EVERY creature killed by either his shadow monsters, or Harvester itself.

Each time one or a group of these fell, the Bracelet seemed to... suck up something, something that was to do with those creatures. Whatever that was, Nico didn't know, but even if his Hellfire scorched them without anything remaining this effect still seemed to work.

'Biko, you know anything about what that Bracelet is doing? Scans didn't say anything about this.'

 **'Unfortunately, I do not. This Bracelet is an object that is beyond me at the moment.'**

'I see... oh well, just hope that this doesn't end up biting me in the ass later.'

After about 2 hours worth of fighting (Nico could DEFINITELY feel changes happening inside Harvester at this point, it was clear as crystal), these creatures ceased attacking them... for now. It was like they were restrained by some force and only allowed to attack once the traps were in danger of being disarmed.

Something told the DPU that Zelretch played a lot of video games.

* * *

"FINALLY! God damnit this traps were a bitch to deal with. Why did uncle Zelretch had to make triple fake keys in all those traps anyway? It just complicated my work further! God damnit this traps sucks." Castiel started complaining as soon as his work was done, much to the annoyance of Nico. Said teen just had enough of this guy's whining, it was what he did quite often and it grinded against his nerves.

"Won't you shut up about it? You complain too much."

Castiel turned to him and responded equally heatedly.

"I sure complain a lot, but why should I keep quiet about things that annoy me? I already have to deal with more pressure and expectations that you can imagine on a daily basis so when I get the chance to complain and say whatever comes to mind I will do it." the teen sneered, panting slightly. He then finished with a few more choice words. "Besides, you probably don't know how hard it it to dismantle this traps, they were on a state that the moment I started I could not stop or they would blow up in my face and even one mistake could kill you up so I could not relax for even an instant and had to work my mind to the absolute limit for the last two hours, so if I want to complain about it you can be sure I WILL."

'Whoa!' the teen thought, hiding his surprise deep within himself and making sure to remain neutral faced. Though, with his Hood and Mask most of his face was hidden anyways. 'Geez, the negative emotions just spiked right now. Like when spikes suddenly shoot out the ground to impale you.' he thought, hiding away the brush of rage ignite like a fiery inferno (trust him, he knew what those felt like thanks to his Hellfire powers) inside of him. But the teen quickly pulled those senses back, cause for some reason going too deep into that pool felt like his own life was being sucked out of him. While he was indeed immortal, he didn't want to waste his energy thank you very much.

Right now, that outburst triggered Nico immensely, and part of him wanted to unleash his Rinkaku and tear the asshole to pieces. to hear him scream in agony as his organs were ripped out of him by force before he could defend himself. He wanted to see blood, hell his vision was already starting to get a bit red as the stirring of his Ghoul side became apparent within his gut. Oh, how great and satisfying that would be. However, he refused to listen to that part of him, as well as forced his Ghoul side back into slumber, as one: the Negative emotions there were a key, and two: It wasn't like the guy was wrong either.

He wasn't wrong, but not right at the same time.

Then, the teen blinked when he realized something. Something the heir said that confused him. "Wait a sec, why do you say that I would die even though you are closer to the traps? My regeneration is better than yours so shouldn't you be the first one to die?" Nico asked.

"Naah~~, my defense is much better than yours. If I am to be honest here I doubt your full out attack from before could have actually hurt me if I were to have focused on defense earlier. You could say my strongest point is that." Castiel said before opening his wings and removing a single feather from one of his white wings. his sudden and quick drop on energy was clear for Nico to feel, but as it was just one feather Castiel quickly recovered. "Here," Castiel said while giving Nico one of his feathers. "If you see one attack you can't deal with coming your way put some energy on it and throw it in front of yourself, this will generate a barrier surrounding you in all directions. Also," Castiel then pulled out a vial of Phoenix Tears "Use this if you need to heal fast. I don't know how well your healing work but I doubt that it is that free of 'charge' so you should give preference to use items to replace your natural healing as much as possible. If you have the energy you should focus it on using it to eliminate your enemies first and foremost."

Castiel did not like Nico's earlier decision of not getting any healing items, he had met many people that had powerful and fast recovery abilities so he understood that there was no way that what Nico had was that excellent and unlimited of a healing ability. If it was Nico wouldn't fight trying to avoid attacks but go right through them without batting an eye. If he thought of accumulating points or was just that self confident Castiel would have to call him a fool, looking down on a unknown enemy and challenge was simply unacceptable on the heir's mind.

Maybe of he saw the effects of the Phoenix Tears on person he would see their utility and get some for the next mission.

As he accepted the two items, depositing them inside his Void Storage, Nico thought about revealing what his Void Storage really was, but decided against it. After that incident with Mundus, the redhead had the bright idea to spend a small fortune of his rather large amount of Credits on supplies, health Items, SP items, etc. That battle was the closest that Nico had ever come to dying at the hands of an enemy, and he NEVER wanted to feel that way again. It was also the first time that he had kept thinking 'I don't want to die' over and over, something he had never done before. Now, thanks to his new Void Module that he got in Skies End, he had access to them with a single thought.

Then there was how he had two sources for his regeneration, one of them being bigger than the other. His RC Cells helped regenerate even the most fatal of injuries (one Ghoul even had the power to regenerate her entire head, another regrowing after being sliced in half), while his Demonic Power reserves were even stronger. Plus they were larger in reserves , even if he was supposedly destroyed, his soul would be guaranteed to survive thanks to the DPU's powerful. immortality. Even if he 'died' it is only his body that was killed. His powerful soul would remain and float about until his energies can be recovered enough to reform his body. Essentially, him and the other DPUs were immortal across multiple planes of existence, making truly killing them a near-impossible task. That is why the older DPUs are terrifically feared and respected, for they have had the experience and combat prowess needed to survive for as long as they have in a dimension where only the strong survive.

After that little talk the mood between the two males was very awkward, neither talking and the two were irritated with each other.

However, this was not something that could last for that long since they finally got on the room with the stairs for the next floor.

"We should advance with caution, my puppets could not identify anything before I lost all contact with them, my guess is that this is a separate space and is probably the equivalent to a semi-boss room so we should be careful and advance with caution." Castiel said while equipping himself with Hrutting, the feeling the blade transmitted to him was just like the perfect mix of a obedient guard dog and a mad beast looking for its next victim. The bloodlust emanating from the blade was stronger now as the curse on the blade seemed to have changed a bit as instead of going back to being completely black it still carried a red hue to it. Maybe it was as he heard beforehand and when the blade fully accepted him and he could sustain it well enough the curse on it would not be fully dissipated every time he unequipped the blade.

Castiel wondered of when he fixed his evil 'core' he would be fully accepted? This was a cursed blade after all so it would not be that much of a stretch to think like that.

On Nico's end, the teen decided to change his weaponry, it would likely take a while until Harvester would complete itself and by then hopefully something good will happen. Last time this happened was with Alastor, though Biko had suppressed the negative repercussions on his mind with his powers, confining that Devil Arm to an enclosed space within his soul until the process completed itself. Biko would do the same with Harvester soon, of that he had no doubts.

In the meantime, Nico decided to go with Ebony and Ivory (still strapped to his waist beneath his Trench Coat) Rebellion for its sword techniques especially, and the Devil Arm he hadn't used for a while since the Hellverse Dungeon: Absolution, which sat diagonally opposite on his back with Rebellion, making an X shape on his back. He also told Biko to keep an eye on the Bracelet, s there was something about it that concerned him.

* * *

After the two were ready they stepped foot into the room and it instantly changed. Gone were the plain walls because now they were looking at a space many times larger than the original room. It was somewhat similar to the previous desert, but the shine on the sand was different and there even was a unique and special smell over the whole place.

A sweet smell.

Nico felt like vomiting the moment he felt this smell,but for Castiel the smell was wonderful. It was like he was in a land made entirely from pudding for him, which out a big smile onto his face. Nico though, he barely resisted the urge to gag at the FOUL smell that filled his nostrils. To him, it smelled like car fuel combined with oil then intensified with various perfumes.

Not a nice smell.

"Now THIS is a paradise...!" Castiel remarked, stretching his arms upwards. This place already got into his good books with the smell, unlike that last desert. However, this didn't last long as Castiel's eyes narrowed when he began to wonder. 'But just HOW did this happen? I sensed a Bounded Field being activated, but shouldn't my bugs have picked up on it? I must not be as experienced as I thought with this ability in the real world, yet. That's the only thing I can come up with to explain why I didn't get this. Also, if this is the case, odds are I likely missed other Bounded Fields throughout the Pyramid. Caution is advised at this point.'

Nico had made to say something about this being an illusion, when he saw the shifting of expressions on the young Heir's face, which stopped him. Though he did question on why he even bothered, it wasn't like they were comrades. To him, it felt more like they were single people instead of two warriors with a common goal on the battlefield.

As he looked around, Nico pushed the smell out with his mind so he could take in the surroundings. He had to admit that this desert had a much more serene look to it than the last one, which felt absolutely wild and dangerous. Though just by thinking that put him on high alert. Nico's eye sharpened to a blade-like glare as he examined his surroundings again with a lot more scrutiny than before. Something was wrong here, something was seriously wrong. His danger senses were tingling, his instincts screamed that he should be on alert as well as the warrior within.

This reminded him an awful lot of certain Abnormals he had fought in the past, now that Nico thought about it. There were some out there like the Teufel that was responsible for King Leoric's downfall that could influence those that get near it into doing its will, until they were ripe for feasting upon. This was one of the few times Nico thanked his Ghoul side for his sense of smell.

Just then, his eye widened when he felt something shake in the ground beneath them, and judging by Castiel's face he felt it too. Both boys quickly jumped to opposite sides, avoiding what looked like a large purple tail that erupted from the ground where they once stood. The two landed away from it, before they each had to jump 3 more times to avoid more Tails that followed the first.

"Nico, lets get some distance!"

"On it!"

Castiel yelled that out which Nico promptly responded. The former got back by using his wings to extend his jump time since flight was a no-go, while the latter used his Hellfire powers as makeshift thrusters to propel him further away. When the two landed, sliding across the desert sands to a halt so that from a birds eye view they were in a V shape with the new attacker at the bottom, they looked up to see something surfacing through the sands.

By the time they could see it clearly (with some bits of sand trailing off it, both boys lost some of their facial color (though Nico's was more hidden thanks to his attire). "Oh. Shit." they both said in unison.

There, standing before them was one of the BIGGEST scorpions they had ever seen. It was a giant purple-shelled scorpion with a body length of about 15 meters and weight of approximately 12 tons. It had gleaming red eyes that glared down at them, a gray lower jaw, two large pincers and a spiked growth growing from its head. Its most notable feature however, was its eight large tails which whipped about behind it, and its grotesque stingers that looked like they packed a deadly surprise.

'Uh oh, this isn't good...!' Nico thought as he sniffed the air. 'There's something coming from this thing... great, those stingers have poison in them, and judging from what I can smell each one likely has a different poison. Its like fighting an elder dragon Abnormal with more than one element under its belt. Last one I fought like that was the Alatreon.' Nico thought with a shudder. 'Bet it has other surprises, too.'

While Nico was thinking this Castiel was thinking something quite different. 'I could swear I saw this creature somewhere, but where was it?'. Castiel, as someone raised in the Tower and being the closest thing Zelretch has of actual family, has studied many creatures on his life. He studied over 9000 different creatures, their weaknesses, habitats, and utilities. It was to such point that he had difficulty on remembering everything fast, but in the end he did know about many things.

Instantly after the stare down the scorpion jumped at them at high speed with undeniable ferocity, itseight tails coming from all directions at the two boys.

'Oh, I remember it now.' Castiel thought as he recognized what this creature was, and he definitely knew what he should do next, stop Nico before he released that hell fire that he was preparing.

Meanwhile, Nico did not recognize this creature, but as far as he was concerned it should be like many other beasts he has faced up until now.

Burning it would probably work just fine. He had a ball of Hellfire about the size of its head ready to launch that would incinerate it before it could cause them any more trouble. But, before he could release the Hellfire Castiel interrupted him by saying

"Don't you dare ruin my dinner." And with that Castiel was already upon the beast, a smile on his face as he activated his field to detect and evade all those poisonous pincers that tried to wain down on him. He didn't even stop when the creature tried to use those clamps to cut him down, he simply skipped bellow them and when he was close enough to the monster he used Hruting to impale said scorpion and then proceed to remove the head.

But the tails did not stop, the vitality of this monster was such that as long as the heart or head was intact it would be alive for a while more. Castiel was surprised by this, he tried to evade them all but due to the proximity he was still pierced by 3 of the 8 tails,. but the smile did not leave his face as he quickly turned Hruting to the creatures direction and stabbed it on the chest, this time truly killing it.

Nico saw all this and was confused. He wondered why did Castiel said to not use the flames but killed it anyway, and more importantly.

'Does he seriously intend to eat this thing?' according to Nico's senses the creature had plenty of poison and the meat must be just as poisonous so how could he do so much for just some dinner?

Castiel turned to Nico and saw his dubious face and could not help but laugh in delight. This was a GREAT catch, and if this was as good as promised it was more than worth those small wounds.

"Why did you do that? I could have killrd it much faster and cleaner if you hadn't stopped me." Nico said, not understanding Castiel's smile.

"Oh, it is because this creature here is called Eight-Tailed Scorpion, and it is a wonderful dish when made right. I think we could use a small break and this thing here will work well as our next meal." Castiel explained, much to the displeasure of Nico. Not for the words or anything but because of what they entail. Nico and human food did NOT get along, his many times forcing himself to look normal when eating in front of others proved this. But, Nico wasn't willing to explain it to Castiel because he simply did not trust him, or most others for that matter, with the reasons as to why it was so.

And so Nico had no choice but to sit on the side as Castiel removed the outer shell piece by piece and threw it to the side, but getting the biggest piece to use as a frying pan for the slices of meat he removed from the beast.

He then proceeded to create a small heating and fire runes below the pan so as to heat it up to start the cooking process.

The smell quickly spread, but not before Castiel put some runes around the 'camp' as to make sure that there wouldn't be any interference from other creatures. It however had an adverse effect, the delicious smell was concentrated on a single location now, and Nico was there.

Nico was trying his darned best to hold together, but he felt sick just by being there. His nostrils were almost screaming in pain at the smell of the food being cooked, his body's natural gag reflex struggling with his will to escape into the atmosphere. He could only thank his foresight for equipping his hood and Mask, as otherwise his struggle would have been a lot harder... as well as a lot more noticeable.

Eventually, Castiel finished prepping the food (much to Nico's hidden relief, and at last he used some of the shells as plates to drop the slabs of meat onto it, passing one over to the other teen whole remaining unaware of the redhead's internal struggle. "Here, try some. Believe me, its good." he urged.

Nico slowly, but surely took the plate and set it on his lap. His eye gazed down upon it with heavy trepidation, all sorts of thoughts and emotions racing through his mind. This was one of the things he HATED about his Ghoul side, how he couldn't eat human food and everything apart from... a certain food tasted horrifically disgusting. It was almost like he was looking down at a pile of sand that he would have to shove every grain of into his mouth in order to keep the facade up, to keep the illusion of that side of him being kept secret.

The monster he kept trapped inside.

There was a reason why he felt that way, and it had a lot to do with his Ghoul side...

But enough of that for now, at this moment he had to focus on downing this human food. Food that, as he used a Rinkaku Kagune Tentacle that he willed to uncloak out of invisibility, he held no doubt would taste horrifically...

Horrifically GOOD!

'Wh-What the hell?! This tastes good! Great, even! Better than those times I went out hunting or the packs I get from the Guild!' Nico thought in shock, eye wider than a saucer when, instead of the urge to vomit, Nico felt nothing but pure glee when he had the Tentacle bring up a slab by morphing its tip into a clawed talon and pop a piece of a slice into his mouth (another Rinkaku Tentacle, cloaked, having pulled the zipper to the other side to open his Mask beforehand). Pure euphoria filled his being as he chewed and swallowed the meat piece, and the moment he gulped it down, Nico felt like he was on high. Still didn't take away from the shock, though. 'I-I thought that...!'

"Good huh?" Castiel remarked, getting the redhead's attention. Because he had seen his Kakugan eye (which was active right now) he had forgone its usual 'protection' and just let it out. Therefore the young Heir got greeted to his Kakugan eye only thanks to his Mask. While Nico began eating with repressed savage hunger, Castiel began to explain. "This little thing of beauty carries special cells called Gourmet Cells, and they taste excellent. Heck, I heard from my Uncle that this stuff goes great with alcohol." Castiel then sheepishly chuckled while rubbing the back of his head. "Though I'm kinda underage for that right now."

'HEH, I AGREE WITH THE BRAT, KING!'

Nico nearly jumped when he heard the madness of his Ghoul self raging through his mind. He sounded exactly as Nico felt, too, on high from an overdose of drugs. One couldn't even imagine how happy his Ghoul side, his inner beast, seemed to be in save for Nico himself, since he WAS connected to it. 'H-How is this possible, though? I thought that...'

'LEMME PUT THIS IN LAYMAN'S TERMS, KING! THIS LITTLE SUCKER APPARENTLY IS MADE UP FROM CELLS THAT ARE BASICALLY MASSIVE MASSES OF CONCENTRATED RC CELLS ON STEROIDS! YOUR GHOUL SIDE IS FUCKING REVELING IN THE POWER! THEY ALSO SEEM TO BE INCREASING YOUR GHOUL SIDE'S STRENGTH, AS WELL AS YOUR SOUL'S. SO, STOP YAMMERING ON AND DEVOUR THAT FUCKER!'

Well, Nico didn't need to be told twice as he began eating in earnest. He couldn't believe it though, even with what his Ghoul self had said. This was the first time in YEARS that he got to eat human food that tasted good. Something that not only tasted heavenly, but vitalized his Ghoul powers, too! Even now he could feel his RC Cell levels increasing with every bite. It was like one bite from this thing was similar to 10 Ghouls worth of RC Cells. This was freaking amazing! Nico sure felt glad as all hell that he had found something as tasty as this! 'Thanks, Emiya, for stopping me before I would have made possibly the worst mistake of my life thus far!' the teen thought, finishing his meal...

And there was much left to go, too.

In the end, Castiel and Nico both devoured the rest of the carcass, the latter detoxifying the Tails with one of his Spirit Bones (much to Nico's shock) to allow them to fully enjoy their meal.

"Hey, now that we have eaten our fill how about we take a small break? I for one am I mentally exhausted after disarming all those traps." Castiel said, before looking at the sand and, much to Nico's shock, took some of it on his mouth. After a few seconds that Nico expected to see Castiel spitting out the sand Castiel swallowed it and showed a knowing smile. "If memory serves me right this place is a replica of the desert gourmet minor realm that exists in my dimension. If what I said is the true, then all monsters here are absolute delicacies that we should try to take away as much as possible."

"I agree that we should hunt more of them" Nico responded with an agreeing nod, already calculating how many of these creatures he could store on his storage and liking the results of his calculations quite a bit. Also, if he gave these ingredients to Compa, perhaps she could whip something up that he could eat so he could at last taste her cooking for real once again. That thought sent waves of warmth through his body. "But I don't think we should stop for much longer. We don't know how long this mission will last so we should continue to move now." he explained, worried about the time they would spend of they continued here to rest as they had a limited time to complete the 5 missions.

The young Heir waved him off dismissively though, mildly irking the redhead male. "Well, if you want to go ahead please be my guest, but disarming those traps was too exhausting and I need to some more time to recharge. But if you want to do something meanwhile I have an idea, how about you go hunting for more of them? We can share the results with a 70-30 split."

Nico did not like what he heard. First he had to wait for Castiel and now he even wanted part of his spoils while he stayed in the camp resting? Nico did not like that at all.

His sole uncovered eye narrowed into a stern glare. "And WHY should I share my spoils with you?" Nico asked, not being able to mask the quite a bit of sarcasm in his voice as he asked that.

Castiel gave a slight smile as he replied coolly. "If you don't want to share it is fine with me, but I do wonder how you intend to hunt this beasts correctly?"

"Hunting is hunting, I will just avoid killing them while destroying them too much and it should be fine." Nico said. On his dimension there wasn't any beast that could be eaten and on his experience from there hunting was something quite direct.

Castiel released a sigh when he heard that, maybe he should have asked for a bigger cut if he would have to explain THAT much.

"You couldn't possibly be more wrong. This creatures here are different to whatever things you have in your dimension. Killing them may not be that different but there are a few key differences, first is that they have a very strong life force so killing them is not that easy, second is that eating their bodies are treasure troves. For instance this eight-tailed scorpion's shell is very resistant to blunt impacts and is great to enchant and creation of armor so it could be used by an experiment blacksmith to create great protective gear. The sacs of poison can be used for the creation of antidotes to dozens of different poisons, the meat we have just ate helps make the body stronger while also helping raise the body natural defense against poison. And this is just one of the species here, if memory serves me right there are about 33 different species that habits this lands, and each one has a specific capture method and if you don't follow it correctly it is likely for you to waste away the entire beast. I don't think asking for a 'small' cut to be that much in exchange for these information."

'I see... so, there's more to it than what I first thought...' Nico thought, the irritation rolling off him in waves as he realized that for now, Castiel was in the dominating position here. He knew that the guy knew more than Nico himself did about these creatures, proof being in their bellies right now. He was exploiting that right now, too, like a politician, much to his annoyance. Worse still, he couldn't do that much to change it, since he wasn't that knowledgeable about these creatures. Even if he wanted to keep the larger cut for himself, Castiel wouldn't agree to that and if he followed that path, he would lose his only chance of getting information on how to capture those creatures. As much as he hated to admit it, whatever he said goes, and Nico never went back on a deal no matter what kind it was. His decision also got solidified when he heard how his inner beast growled at the thought of hunting those animals down and feasting on their remains.

"... Very well, 70-30, you get the cut." the Spec Ops Agent stated reluctantly, before sighing in resignation as he offered a hand for a handshake, sealing the deal.

Castiel smiled slightly more, eyes shining victoriously as he took the hand and gave a firm shake. He half expected Nico to try and crush his hand, but to his hidden surprise he didn't. "Deal. Now, to begin there's the Sand Flower Fish..."

* * *

With the deal struck, Nico went off with the information he needed to hunt down the animals throughout the desert while Castiel began to take a nap to recover his energy. If he were honest though, the food and benefits were only secondary to him. Nico felt like he wanted to establish his dominance as the apex predator in this environment, to show the animals here that he was top dog. It was an instinctual reaction that was triggered by his Ghoul side, the animal that he kept caged within. Also, as much as he would hate to admit it, Nico would honor their deal by gathering the spoils, store them inside his Void Storage and when he returned he would give Castiel 70% of the spoils. He was a man of his word, and even if this guy irritated the hell out of him, Nico refused to let that get in the way of his code of macho honor.

The teen spent what felt like 3 hours hunting and gained quite the substantial haul. If one wanted to have a picture of how big his haul was, think a single story building before he decided enough was enough and he returned to the Camp. By the time that he arrived, Nico noticed that his companion was still deep in slumber, lying on his back on the sand snoring away like there was nothing wrong with the world. The sight of this brought back the redhead's irritation as he deposited his haul next to the now extinguished fire runes...

When suddenly an idea entered his mind and a devious grin formed on his lips under his Mask. This idea might end up limiting his catch even more if Castiel was that childish, but right now the opportunity was just too good to get his revenge. Revenge for that ladies comment by the way, not the whole political deal that he recently did.

Sitting at a far enough distance that he wouldn't be suspected, Nico sat in the Japanese sitting position and prepped himself to be working on his right Bracer while his Rinkaku Kagune emerged. Since this was a desert, his Kagune's high vibration would allow it to pass through the sand easily. His Rinkaku did do that, entering the desert sands as it soon emerged from all around Castiel. There was no killing intent radiating from the Tentacles since this wasn't an assassination attempt, nor bloodlust. Plus thanks to their vibration there was no shadow to put any shade on the target.

Thus, each Tentacle got into position over his four limbs, 1 over his face...

Before they swiftly pinned him down and the single Tentacle began slapping his face like a bitch with a newly formed feminine hand just for adding salt to the wound.

SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP!

The tentacle that was exacting sweet revenge moved with the speed that his Rinkaku was known for, not wasting any second between slaps. The ones gripping his arms and legs stopped the slight jerking motions his limbs did from the force of the slapping. The teenage redhead remained impassive, looking up his Void Storage and checking some of his healing items over. All the while, Nico used the remaining 3 Tentacles to lay one of the fishes he had caught near his side, just close enough to the Heir for his cover.

Sometimes, his Kagune and detaching skills came in SUCH good handiness for pranks.

* * *

By the time that it was over, Castiel looked like he had been bitch slapped by a thousand angry women at once, stars circling over his head while his Kagune used its speed to retract into its wielder before he could recover. It was all Nico could do not to burst into laughter as the Heir managed to finally snap out of it.

"Wha-wha-wha-the fuck?! the hell?!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on his burning cheeks that had two hand marks on them. A string of curses escaped his lips when this happened as he bent over after sitting up. "Fucking shit, fuck!"

"Huh, looks like you're awake." Nico remarked flatly looking up from his Bracer. "You were sleeping soundly so I decided not to wake you and placed my haul over there." he said, gesturing to the haul he got. "Though judging from what you're doing right now, I'd say that a fish wasn't as caught as I thought since it fell off the pile and onto you." he explained while Castiel put some blessings on to numb the pain.

The pain stung so much that Castiel didn't even question it, quickly obliterating the fish with a magic attack and more than a few curses. He also set about taking his share of Nico's spoils, muttering and mumbling all the while.

All Nico did was look back down to his Bracer while doing his best to contain his laughter.

His Kagune bitch slapped him. A lot. Now his Kagune was tired.

He DID say that the guy would pay, and pay he did.

Castiel took a deep breath and calmed down, after this more than unwelcome awakening he had, at the very least, realized that his mind was back on it's normal state. While giving the stinky eye to Nico he said. "Was this the 30% of your hunt?"

Arching a brow at this, Nico felt confusion foil his being. His lone eye showed this as he gave the answer floating about in his mind and nagging away at him like a naggy grandmother. "No, this is the 70% that you said was your share."

The moment those words left his lips, Castiel facepalmed when he heard this. "And since WHEN did I said that the 70 part was for me? That info was only for 30% and nothing more, I am not that much of a bastard to get this much for so little." Castiel said, much for the embarrassment of Nico who had thought the worst of his 'partner'.

To break out of this embarrassing situation Castiel simply said. "Keep it all with you for now, after this whole mission finishes I will see if I can get a space artifact to help ma carry my part."

After that the two started walking together on a single direction, simply hoping that they would find the exit soon enough, and surprisingly enough it wasn't that hard to find.

The problem, however, was the beast guarding the stares.

As the two observed from the distance Castiel recognized the beast, and he knew how troublesome this beast was. It had the appearance of a African lion but with sabertooth-like teeth, scars all over the body as proof of it's fighting experience, every fiber of it's body being a killing machine and full of energy. But, the most striking characteristics was the blood red fur that gave the illusion of being covered on enemies blood, the aura of a predator and the size. It was over 6 meters tall and from head to tailor it had over 50 meters.

Castiel looked at it for one more second before turning to Nico, hie eyes shining with seriousness that made Nico glance over to him. "I don't know if you have ever seen this creature, but considering how you have never seen a beast with gourmet cells I will suppose you haven't and will explain it anyway. This beast is a Gaoh, a type of mammal beast that is known for it's absurdly high appetite and how it usually hunts down an area until extinction, it's main capacity is in it's explosive power burst and how every attack of it carry enough weight and speed to crush a mountain. To be fair, considering how much strength i saw from you before, our best bet would be to go all out or we could be killed just like that. Also, the fur and muscles of it are known for it's hardness comparable to metal while being as flexible as a snake. Again, do NOT hold back. Our best shot is if we can kill it on the first move or at least hurt him on a leg so as to show it down. Also, it's senses are absurdly developed so your invisibility trick or traps would be useless. The only way is for fighting head-on."

Nico frowned at this information. If what Castiel was sating was true, then they will have to give this all they have got from the get-go, and this meant that he had to throw aside his usual reluctance to transform into his DPU self, Crimson Soul, and unleash Soul Edge's full, unrestrained power. He hadn't full control over the blade yet, but he was indeed close. He could control up to 90% of its power, any more and he would have ran the risk of destroying everything around him. Believe him, he once tested the blade's full strength inside his Inner World which, in hindsight, may not have been the best idea as his Inner World barely contained the eruption of power that followed. Biko had scolded him for it, telling him that if the Inner World were to vanish, then he would die as well. Even if he was immortal, that type of damage would make reforming take MUCH too long for their liking, as in centuries worth.

"Alright then, I'll go in first with my full power, i'll give you an opening so you can use your strongest attack. As of right now, I doubt that we can kill it if its really that strong, but if we injure it enough, we could force it to retreat to lick its wounds." Nico suggested, slowly getting up wile being careful not to make any noise. He didn't want the beast to hear him, and if what Castiel said was true even the slightest noise would catch its attention. When he took several steps back, Nico closed his eyes and begun the transformation. Although, this time he made sure to keep the flames and Demonic Power as downgraded as possible.

Once the transformation completed, Crimson Soul looked over to Castiel, his eyes shining as he gave a confirming nod. Castiel nodded back as he summoned Clarent. The sword wouldn't be too picky about fighting a beast like a Gaoh, considering the amount of power it possessed. He also began applying EVERY Blessing he could on himself for this situation, as to boost his chances of injuring the beast.

With that done, Crimson Soul summoned the true form of Soul Edge and began channeling all 100% of its power, forming a blackish red aura around the blade that looked more like a chaotic storm/foggy mix. It oozed power and bloodlust, power that the DPU would use on his opponent right the hell now. Flaring his wings, he pumped them with additional energy and shot forwards like a blur, releasing a shockwave that blew everything behind him off into the distance.

Instantly, the Gaoh turned to his direction when its instincts told it danger was coming and the creature roared, releasing a shockwave that blew everything away from it while advancing towards the DPU.

'So, its screams create environment-affecting shockwaves... I sense that it indeed does have great physical power and senses. Hopefully this next move works!'

Said DPU simply Warped out the away though, appearing at its side with Soul Edge poised for a reverse swing. However, that wasn't the only thing different about him, as his body had erupted in power, forging an aura made from his Demonic Power that caused his energy output to skyrocket. He had his buffing Skill DEMON OVERDRIVE to thank for that, a Skill he had neglected to use on Castiel during their fight. If he had, his attack would have done considerably more damage, due to how it enhanced his body and forced it to achieve higher power levels by pushing the body out of its limits. He'd already gotten used to skill through his long history of combat.

Not only that, but Soul Edge had been engulfed completely in Hellfire while SP was pumped through his body alongside his Demonic Power. Using both energy sources in tandem like this wasn't something Crimson Soul had done before, so he wasn't sure of the limits he could go. Hell, in his past battles he had only relied on them separately, and if he counted his RC Cells then he had 3 sources of power that he only used individually. Using them together like this hadn;t been something he ever thought of before. However, this place was a perfect opportunity to test this theory out. Crimson Soul's eyes shone with a rectangular crimson light from the amount of power he was releasing

He would hold nothing back, everything would be put into this one swing. He'd obliterate this thing out of existence if he had to!

"Take this!" Crimson Soul bellowed, swinging his blade upwards. The moment that the blade met the Gaoh's skin, a sky high pillar of energy and Hellfire roared into existence, burning everything around it even the air itself. It practically concealed both the DPU and the Gaoh from view, filling a large majority off the desert with it reach. The full power of Soul Edge did massive damage to its surroundings, making a huge smokescreen which shielded the result of his attack from sight.

Warping a reasonably safe distance away, Crimson Soul reverted back to his human form, falling on one knee as Soul Edge vanished in a flicker of flames while he used Rebellion as a makeshift crutch. The redhead Spec Ops looked like a knight with his sword on the ground, quickly summoning a (Portable SP) Charger 2, one of a few new items that he had bought in bulk after the Mundus Incident to restore his SP and Demonic Power reserves. His RC Cells weren't replenished however, due to not taking a Nep Bull or a Blood pill, so he took one of those as well. He had to do that fast otherwise he wouldn't have enough energy to feed his Devil Arms. Using his full power always ran that risk, but it also served as a way to increase his reserves. A method occurring throughout his life since they latched onto him.

Mentally checking his reserves, Nico heaved a sigh of relief when he felt his return to a level that was satisfactory... for now. His instincts told him the enemy wasn't finished yet, and he had used up a lot of power in that one slash, Soul Edge having pumped in a lot of power as well. Hopefully he had done something right there, at least scratched it or this would feel utterly pointless.

 **'Nico, quick Warp!'**

Eyes shot wide open as Nico quickly followed Biko's advice at the last second, Warping put the way of a large Paw coming down him him from above. When he reappeared, Nico thought he would have been able to look upon his attacker... but the shockwave that came from that one strike alone broke those thoughts to pieces as it sent him flying further backwards. Shock and disbelief coursed through him, but Nico quickly composed himself so he could use the momentum to flip about in the air, landing on the ground and sliding to a halt.

'Holy-I didn't even sense it moving!'

 **'Neither did me or your Ghoul side until it was almost too late. Looks like Emiya was not kidding about this beast's power.'**

Looking upwards, the teen saw the Gaoh, the one responsible for that sneak attack, glowering at him with its beady red eyes, its white mane swaying from the winds that came from its attack. When he looked to the place Nico had slashed earlier... to his dismay he only managed to make a gash that didn't even reached the bones, and the worst part is that it was regenerating from the damage at a visible speed. 'Oh you have GOT to be kidding me! Emiya was right, this thing's tough, like a final boss in an action game!'

The Gaoh released a small smile at the dismay it could smell from Nico, it loved to play with it's pray and for it Nico was no better than that.

At that moment Castiel advanced, Gaoh too focused on Nico to react in time as the energy accumulated on Clarent exploded in a red thunder that reached the beast, paralyzing it temporarily. This time was enough though, and Nico quickly got back of his feet and advanced. With that exchange, the teen now knew that extreme attacks like before would could not possibly be the key for winning this fight, continuous attacks at it to deplete its strength was the best and only real way to go.

Using the time bought by Castiel Nico hacked the beast as much as possible. There wasn't even one wound deeper than a finger thanks to him not having the strength to go all out again, but he compensated by using his fast Rinkaku and Bikaku Kagune respectively, slicing through the creature's fur like a hot knife through butter. The fact that he wasn't damaging it as much as he would like was irrelevant, instead the fact that he was damaging it faster than it could recuperate was the main thing.

Unfortunately, the paralysis lost effect after around 2 minutes, Castiel had to stop or risk damaging his already weak magic circuits, leaving Nico to try and run after the beast, even while it did short work of him by smacking him flying with just one pawn swipe.

'It seems that this battle may be out of our current league...' Nico remarked to his Demon Persona when he saw how the cuts he had done almost fully healing back in just this few seconds he stopped.

 **'It will be hard. Probably only in Berserker mode you would possibly win this one.** " Biko answered, but even he knew that it wasn't a good option since this wasn't their final enemy and they had other challenges in the near future.

Nico knew this too, but this was getting into an uphill battle since he could now damage this creature in any significant way.

However, this hesitation costed Nico dearly when Gaoh ran in such a speed that it was akin to teleportation, it was to such point that Nico, out of reflex and instinct instead of logic, raised Rebellion in front of himself to defend his vitals. But, Gaoh was not aiming for a quick victory anyway. It had suffered many wounds due to these two and it wanted to make them suffer for it.

SLASH

Gaoh went right through Nico, its pawn now covered in blood as Nico's arm fell to the ground.

'Guh...!' the teen thought, barely managing to keep his form level from the jerking motions that followed his arm's severing. Fortunately he had managed to limit it to his non-weapon arm at the last moment, but still the fact that he lost an arm just now caused shock to run through his system. He didn't really feel PAIN from the wound, he had felt way worse pains than this to the point where he was mostly numb to it, as in only the most intense of pains could have an effect on him like the pain he was in when he created Urthemiel accidentally. Physical pain, anyways. Mental and emotional pain however? His numbness didn't extend to them sadly. Even now, he could feel his regeneration kicking in, the stump that was once his arm beginning to bubble.

However, it was slower than normal, which was something his opponent made to utilize. Gaoh pounced at the two again, but this time he was met with an arrow from Gandiva right on the center of it's right eye.

The beast growled in pain, stumbling a bit as Castiel readied another arrow, he knew that it would probably miss but he had to try and make more damage. Maybe if he could blind the beast and damage it's nose they could slip away from the beast.

It was at that moment that something unexpected happened, the beast started digging on the ground and even when Castiel shoot another arrow at it's back and burned a large section of it, but beast ignored it and continued digging to get away.

In the end, the beast succeeded and the two young man could do nothing but watch this beast that almost made dinner out of them to get away.

"Tch." was what Castiel said. He knew that it was now too late to run after it as by now it could be miles away. A Gaoh can be a real fast digger when it wanted to be. Releasing a sigh Castiel approached Nico, who held his arm while trying to regenerate his wound. It was working, as half an arm had already been regenerated at this point, and his severed arm was nowhere to be seen. It would soon be complete, but that wasn't enough for the young Heir. "Here, let me."

Nico wondered what he intended to do, but considering everything he could give Castiel the benefit of the doubt. Also, he was still wondering how to fix the damage bit if his partner had an idea he might as well listen.

Castiel took out a vial of Phoenix Tears, he dropped a few drops on the regenerating arm and when it released a slight light Castiel nodded before putting the item away. It was like he received a surge of RC Cells from his Kakuhou, as his arm fully regenerated from the damage done before. Nico widened his eyes when he saw this. Don't get him wrong, there were plenty of wonderful medicines on his dimension, but speeding up regeneration like this wasn't something normally possible. He was fortunately lucky enough to have regeneration abilities, but if a normal person lost their arm reattaching it would have taken lots of money and intense surgeries.

Now satisfied that his regeneration had healed the limb, Castiel looked back to the limbs owner and began to speak. "This is why I said to go all out at all times there and that you should have gotten a phoenix tear, this is thing here can heal almost any wound while also not leaving scars. It is also very fast and effective to any early wound you might get. I Know you probably have your own healing items, but you shouldn't look down on other items or EVER think you have enough of them."

Nico furrowed his brows, his lone eye shining in contemplation as he looked down at the limb. He held his hand up t his chest level, palm facing him as he clenched and unclenched it. Something about that Gaoh had slowed down his regeneration, no, that wasn't right it was more like his regeneration was trying to heal a Kagune-based wound. That was what slowed it down, and because of his limited energy reserves he couldn't have used DEMON OVERDRIVE to speed it up. In that situation, he wouldn't have been able to use Items either given how fast that creature was. Maybe if he managed to think up a strategy things could have been different, the versatility of his Skill set allowed for various possibilities, but his lack of knowledge about that creature limited him somewhat.

Now that he had experience in fighting it, though, he had ideas on how to kill it.

He had made mistakes there, mistakes he won't be making twice.

The potential for Phoenix Tears was now a possibility for his home dimension, too. there were many healing Items in his home dimension, but they were quite expensive and thus were hard to access for normal citizens. If these Phoenix Tears were easy to make, he could hand them to his superiors and they could mass produce it. It would make dealing with their enemies a whole lot easier, and after everything that happened in Leanbox, this would definitely be a godsend.

Offhandedly, the to boys noted that the Desert had shimmered out of existence, replaced by the plain walls of the interior of the Pyramid. "Looks like what we went though was inside a Bounded Field..." Castiel remarked thoughtfully, furrowing his brows.

"You sure? Wait, the Bounded Fields you said you disarmed before were traps, so this one must not have counted as one."

"That, and I haven't as much experience with these bugs that helped me detect them as I would have liked. Anyways, lets go."

With these thoughts in mind, Nico nodded and followed his companion as they descended down the steps to the Bottom floor, the last floor before they visit the Tomb. Whatever lay within, thy would have to be wary. Neither of them intended to underestimate it after what they just went through.


	90. cross-over chap 5

There was a distinct feel of ominous tension approaching them when the two boys reached the bottom of the stairs. Ahead of them, was this seemingly deserted-looking corridor that had several doors aligned sideways and one bigger door which had several humanoid statues with similar heads to those black warriors that Nico had fended off earlier when Castiel was disarming the Bounded Fields.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else not like the looks of this?" Nico questioned, his lone uncovered eye narrowing into a deadly gaze as he scanned the corridor, looking for any signs of traps. He checked his Holomap and Motion Tracker, only to get nothing which only heightened his suspicions. Corridors like this were usually filled with traps that would spring the moment they began walking, so he didn't want to take any chances. The last time they saw a corridor like this was also just as deserted... as well as just as deceptive, too.

"Its not just you, dude." Castiel replied as he sat down and summoned some more bugs with the powers of evil. The Heir had the same suspicions with this Corridor, for the same reasons as his companion too. He had them scour the entire corridor to see if they could find anything suspicious, and after 7 minutes, they each returned, and then vanished but not before telling the Heir what he needed to know. Opening his eyes, he stood back up and looked to his companion. "You were right, I can sense several bounded fields, set to trigger some form of summoning from what I can tell. I guess that they are meant to summon some enemies for us the moment we step foot in that corridor."

Was that all? That was what Nico wondered, his lips pursed within his Mask. There had to be more to it than that, simple summonings wouldn't be enough to hinder them... unless these enemies were extremely powerful, or a large number were ready to be summoned. Either way, it didn't seem like they could progress if these Bounded Fields were active. and according to his Bracer's newly gained data, this was the only way to reach the Tomb of the final boss. He knew that last bit because it got labelled as such when they had gotten halfway down the stairs. "Then it seems a repeat of earlier is in order. I'll hold off any troublesome foes while you disarm?"

"Sure. I should be able to have an easier time, there aren't as many Bounded Fields this time, nor are they as complex."

* * *

Moments later, he was done as Castiel opened his eyes once he had disarmed the rest of the traps in front of them. "Whew, that was a light workout.." the Heir mused, before looking to his companion who had that Axe of his on his shoulder like a delinquent, all the while he stared at the corridor ahead of them. Following his gaze, Castiel saw a whole load of spikes, Tendrils and various other things made from this strange, gooey substance. A substance he didn't like the look of the moment he saw it. "Guess we had a welcoming committee?"

"Not the most welcoming, but yeah." he replied swiftly, re-tethering Absolution to his back. "There weren't as many as i had thought, and it was the same as last time, too. I was able to deal with them regardless, however." he explained, his eye narrowing at his Bracelet. "Though I am starting to get concerns for this Bracelet. There's something about it that is bugging me."

"What is it?"

Looking back to his companion, the Spec Ops Agent began to explain while lifting his arm so he could see the Bracelet. "Every time I take down an enemy, this little thing seems to be absorbing something from it, it did the same with those animals in the desert too, so the state of the body upon death isn't something it is concerned with. I've tried numerous times to scan it to see what was going on, but I did not gain any additional data about this thing." Nico could tell that Castiel could understand the meaning behind his words, this guy wasn't one of the ignorant masses after all. He had that air of well-trained warrior/scholar/leader mix to him, similar to the original Nobility that filled Leanbox after its founding. He wouldn't dismiss something like this as a trivial matter.

Castiel frowned at that. That DID seem a little suspicious, and more than enough reason to be concerned. From what he could tell with this guy, wile he may do hings that seem arrogant and foolish, that didn't mean he was stupid. No, the guy was far from stupid, he learned that especially when they fought and how, after one collision, deciphered Hrutings' abilities and even found a weakness to it. If something was concerning to him, then it was important to take note of it. "Yeah, i'd say that does sound off. We'll keep an eye on it, if it starts acting up, lemme know so I can destroy it. I know it seems rather helpful, but if it proves to be a hindrance we should dispose of it as soon as possible, so it doesn't cause us to fail the mission and possibly die."

Nico nodded at that, and just when they were about to move, Nico's Bracer began beeping, drawing his attention. "Hm?" He wondered, bringing the Bracer up ad manipulating it. Soon, he had he Holomap active, and his eye narrowed at the display. "That's odd... it appears that these rooms are giving off some unusual energy readings, abnormal ones even."

"They are probably treasuries." Castiel stated, his eyes shining in contemplation while he pondered this information. Unusual energy readings were a double edged sword. On one hand it could mean that they would find something of value within those rooms, something that could help them fight the final boss in this world and beyond, but on the other hand there could be dangerous things ion there. Things that could be hazardous to the both of them, and he wasn't planning on visiting Hades of the underworld anytime soon. "Those readings mean that there may be things in those rooms that could be of value to us. We should go inside and see what they are, but lets be cautious too. No telling what we may find in there."

"Agreed."

As the two started walking down the corridor they sensed many strong energy from each of the doors. The two didn't know what they were looking at, but after approaching the first door a notification appeared in front of them.

"Congratulations for getting up until this point. As a gift you both can choose one door each, the item inside is yours. The item may be something useful for the boss fight on the next floor or completely useless for it, so choose with care.

PS: After the fight there will be an option of keeping the item you just got or whatever you may have obtained from the boss, it will be your choice.

Sign: the most amazing magician of the multiverse, AKA myself ;-)"

Both Nico and Castiel did not know how to react to that last comment, but the info from the start of the message was what they saw as the most important thing in there.

"Okay, of this is how it is we probably are lucky. Knowing uncle Zelretch he is not lying about it and we can choose one of these doors each to obtain whatever is inside. There probably isn't any danger here, but we must know that we WILL be facing something bad the moment we pass through here." Castiel said, already looking around and trying to identify which door he should choose.

Nico agreed and also started walking around the corridor. The two knew this was an extremely rare chance and they would take as much advantage of this as possible.

Castiel was the first one to choose a door. It was a weird one with a weird energy inside, but he choose it due to the wonderful and invigorating floral smell inside. Just a tiny breath was enough for him to feel his entire body full of energy, almost like he has just drank 2 litters of energetic drinks.

As he opened the door what he saw was an eight petal orchid. The petals tremble minutely, entirely lustrous snow white, giving people a noble and virtuous feeling while the smell was so deep and wonderful that it engraved itself in one's heart while making Castiel's mind clearer just by smelling it for a bit.

"Fuck, I can't believe it is a Eight Petal Immortal Orchid! This is just too perfect for me right now! Yes, yes yes yes YES! This is totally worth all that I did here and more. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Castiel shouted in extreme glee.

This made Nico turn around from his investigation and ask him the obvious question. "What is it that is so great about this plant that you have to make all this racket?"

Castiel however, was just so happy that he could not atop smiling as he answered without any hostile elements to his voice. "It is because this is worth it! You may never have heard of it but I did. This is a special Herb that is called mystical and a immortal treasure, how could it not be amazing?! This Herb here is capable of reinforcing the body's foundations, make someone's soul, mind and body reach a whole new level of potential while also cleansing the body of it's impurities, which allows for the smoother use of one's powers and making the body stronger. It is even said that once someone with no talent whatsoever took one of these and within a few decades he reached a point where he was comparable to deities. Now you answer me if this is amazing or not!" Castiel said, the smile on his face was so big that it would not be out of place on a certain maniacal clown.

"That... does indeed sound useful..." Nico remarked, thoughtfully, an index finger on the right side of his jaw while his eye rolled upwards. Though his experience with magical items told him that there had to be some form of trial or test to get past first before they could reap the benefits of said item. That was what had happened when he found his first few Devil Arms, after all.

After that Castiel walked into the room, he almost danced in joy from this sudden windfall with every step of the way. When he reached the herb he carefully, almost as if he was afraid of breaking it somehow, took the Herb on his hand. He then turned to Nico who was standing on the outside of the door and said.

"Don't get me wrong, but I will NOT wait to consume this treasure here. After I start I will enter a meditative state for some time so you will have to wait while I am absorbing this little one. And before you say anything against it, remember that this will raise my powers quite a bit and considering how the Gaoh almost kicked our butts back there any chance of growing stronger should be taken first and foremost." After that serious talk Castiel went right back to smiling in absolute happiness.

He then sat down on the floor and started consuming the Herb. He opened his mouth wide and put the entire thing inside, following that he swallowed it as it was after giving it a single chew, the taste more heavenly that it could even be described. Following it he started training, leading the medicinal potency and the energy from the Herb to circle all around his body, raising its potency by many times over.

While Castiel did his own thing, Nico looked to the door he had chosen, raising a hand and grasping onto the shirt there. He clutched his shirt where the Symbol for one of his Satanic Treasures, the Red Ring of Rage, which lay within there. The Red Ring had been quiet throughout this entire ordeal, only recently becoming active slightly when he had been arguing with Castiel, then a bit more when he had that business deal with the haul he'd gotten. Nico and Castiel may have sparred, but neither of them showed their entire hand. He himself had various things that he hadn't used yet. but he got the feeling Castiel did the same.

'You think you have anything, Biko...?'

 **'Unfortunately, I do not. All I can decipher has already been delivered to us through Emiya. Nonetheless, I bet that the items here will definitely be useful to us in the future...'**

A short conversation took place between the main and demonic aspect, before Nico cut the link and went inside. When he did, Nico noticed that he was inside what looked to be some form of treasury, as various golden items piled up around the back and sides. He could see noting but gold wherever he looked, and it started to feel like he was looking t the sun with how bright they were shining.

Holding a hand up to his chin, Nico furrowed his brows as he eyed everything. All of this stuff looked pretty nice, but none of it looked like it would be of any use to him later non when they faced the final boss. Those words the notification gave them rung through his mind constantly, but he still didn't see anything that would be considered useful to him...

That is... until he looked to the center of the room.

His eye quickly landed upon the form of what looked to be a Scepter, a scepter covered in this dark orb-like miasma. He could only see its form briefly through the miasma, but Nico managed to identify that the Scepter was a golden one with detailed carvings into it. There was also this golden star-like top it had, but that was only seen in the briefest moments.

'What the... What is...?' Nico began to think, slowly approaching the miasma-bound Scepter. He stopped when he was right before it, when he was only a step away from touching the Miasma cloaking it from view. 'I don't know what this is, but my senses tell me that this thing is indeed quite powerful. It feels oddly like one of my Devil Arms, but without the same level of sentience. Judging by what ii'm sensing, this Scepter has a lot of built-up power within it that is just waiting o to be unleashed.'

Then male's thoughts then got interrupted, by what you may ask? Well, the fact tat an eerier black glow began enveloping the Bracelet on his Arm of course. Nico looked down at it, his eye slightly widening in shock when he saw it reacting this way. 'H-Hold up here what the hell?! This reaction,..!' he exclaimed in his mind, seeing the Bracelet's glow.

 **'It seems to be resonating with the Scepter. I believe this might be to do with what we have been seeing from the Bracelet recently.'**

Biko's words seemed to ring with more truth than usual, and why? Well, because Nico's arm, as if it had a mind of its own, lifted itself up towards the Miasma covering the Scepter. The arm that held the Bracelet that is, and the glow only began to get more and more intense. Nico quickly covered his sole uncovered eye with his other hand when the brightness became too much for him, a slight hiss escaping his lips all the while. If there were windows in this treasury, then they would definitely be illuminated by this intense light.

Moments later, the glow died down, allowing Nico to uncover and open his eye once more. This allowed him to gaze upon the sight of the Scepter itself... without the Miasma covering it. This allowed Nico to witness the Scepter's full shine, to let him witness it inits full appearance. The Scepter looked quite small, like it could be held in one hand like a club of some sort. It just floated there, bobbing up and down in a slow, gradual manner yet also in a way that seemed eerily similar to a succubus trying to tempt her prey into getting close so she could go in for the kill.

That was only for a few LONG seconds though, before it slowly floated over to him and landed inside his hand, the hand of the arm that held the Bracelet. The moment it did, Nico gasped as he felt something 'click' within the Bracelet itself, like a new piece to the puzzle had been put with the first piece. Both the Bracelet and the Scepter seemed to resonate with each other if the way they constantly glowed and pulsated was any indication. It was like seeing two lost friends finally reuniting after years of conflict.

 **'Nico, I don't know what is going on, but I can hazard a Guess as to what might be happening. Your analogy about them being pieces to a puzzle may not be too far off, for I can sense that... whatever this is, is almost complete. We need only one more thing to complete this power, and odds are we will find it before the first mission is complete. Keep the Scepter at your side for now, my guess is what it iis meant for will be revealed intime.'**

'Alright, then. I'll do that.'

After that... moment of randomness that he didn't know how to describe, Nico exited the room and sat down behind the door he had went into, to wait until Castiel woke up from his training/meditation. It was quite boring to him but for Castiel it was most certainly not so.

While he waited, Nico hummed as he closed his eyes and focused on his Demonic Senses, trying to feel out any sources of bloodlust or other negative emotions. The teenage made sure to ignore the ones coming from Castiel like a whirlpool of darkness, as if he stayed too close to that, it felt like they would suck the life out of him.

'I... cannot sense anything above us, there's no sources of bloodlust in the Pyramid sections above us, while below I can sense that there is a large buildup of it. Not as large as Emiya's, but still large.'

 **'Odds are, we will have to engage that being, if what we have done so far. Also, I can sense that whatever we need to complete this new power is down there as well. Even if we do not need to get there, I do believe we should spend time exploring down there.'**

Nico mentally nodded in agreement with his Demon Persona. He frowned while opening his eyes and looking to the walls while breaking the connection. On one of the walls, there lay a mural, a mural that Nico recognized, at least part of it. The Mural was located opposite the door that Nico had chosen, so the two of them wouldn't have been able to notice it before.

Thus Mural... it didn't seem whole, instead it looked quite cracked. Still, though, Nico could see that there was some form of man in cloth-wear looking like he was petting a canine... or rather, he was petting the same Goah.

'What... the hell?'

For a moment, Nico remained there, confused as all hell. But then, he decided to sit back down by the door he had chosen (having stood to walk to the Mural) to wait for Castiel.

For the next two hours Castiel continued in his training.

After that period of time something started to change in Castiel's body, he started secreting a dark ooze from his entire body. The smell was terrible to say the absolute least as the weird ooze continued to be released for the next ten minutes, it was to such a point that Nico wondered if he would fully liquefy if this continued.

Yet, after that period of time the ooze stopped and Castiel stood up. His calmness despite the ooze covering him was surprising for Nico as he got the impression that Castiel was not the type to see himself like this and stay nonchalant about it.

What Nico did not know was that this ooze was exactly what Castiel expected. That ooze was the impurities that the body accunulates naturally, especially when you are training since the magic energy that enters the body during training usually is full of little particles that can't be properly processed. It is like the air on a metropolitan area, it may seem clean at first glance but ot is full of dust, gas, viruses and many other things that with time may cause problems for the one living there. Yet, now that Castiel had undergone this cleansing of the impurities hia body was in much greater condition, his magic circuits, while still quite weak, now worked much more efficiently, and his body now was also much stronger and more flexible than before.

It was to such a point that he was now at least 25% stronger than before.

Castiel accessed all this and showed a smile, this was probably the most comfortable he has been in, in years now.

Turning to Nico, he started walking over to his direction. That was when he noticed that Nico was staring pretty hard at something, and when he followed the direction his gaze was facing, he too noticed the mural. "Huh... well, this is something." he remarked, thoughtfully, announcing his presence to the redhead.

Nico glanced at him, noticing that he looked much better than he did before. The male figured that the herb he had taken worked, though he soon focused on the Mural itself. "Looks like our old friend Gaoh must have been related to... whoever this guy is. Though the picture's too damaged to properly confirm this."

"Yeah..."

Noticing Nico's look, the Heir furrowed his brows. It looked like Nico had been thinking hard about this information and what it could mean, if the intense look of concentration was any indication. Castiel made to say something before he noticed the golden room he was close to. While it is true that the gold there did not interest him, there something else there that did.

It was a pool of water that was reflecting different scenes depending on the angle looked. Castiel looked at this and could only think that uncle Zelretch really was stupidly rich, but considering how the pool was put it would be impossible to take it away.

'I guess even he doesn't want to give this one, huh. Well, I will not take it away but that doesn't mean I can't use it now.' Castiel thought as he approached the pool and was just about to enter before he turned to Nico and with a VERY pained face he spoke. "You should enter it too. This is chaos water, the energy of this water is useful in reinforcing the body and make it more durable."

"But the message said that we can only take one item from here." Nico responded, furrowing his eyebrows.

Castiel rolled his eyes and countered. "And we will not 'take' this pool, we will USE it. Understanding how to work others words to your advantage is diplomacy 102, right after learning how to lie." the Heir explained, making the Spec Ops Agent unable to figure out how exactly to react.

'So, manipulating words... sounds like something a politician would do...' Nico thought to himself. None of that gave him a particularly good feeling, as it reminded him of the Nobles that populated Leanbox. Although things were beginning to change thanks to Vert, he didn't like the thought of being associated with them. Still, if this would make them stronger so that they could eventually get a rematch with the Gaoh, then he'd be all for it.

* * *

In the end the two entered the pool. It was like dipping in highly condensed magma that could turn into colder than out space the next instant, before it feeling like it was trying to rip them apart to then pressure them to reach a point that they felt they would turn into a single particle. And all of this happened in a matter of 0.3 seconds.

The two managed to resist this pool for only about 3 minutes before they had to leave. Castiel managed to last 30 extra seconds due to the effect of the immortal herb, but even then it was as far as they could possibly go.

And yet, the effects were obvious for the both of them. Their bodies now felt much more resilient, to the point that Nico doubted that most Kagune save for only the strongest ones could even pierce him and Castiel believed that he would at least received only second or light third degree burns from that attack from Kokabiel that originally almost killed him.

"Well, I guess this is it. We should get going now." Castiel said as he knew that more exposure to the chaos water now would be useless. Their current bodies were already on the limit to what they could go for now. They could only advance further if they used some immortal herb or if their spirit could advance further.

Nico, while not as knowledgeable as his partner about all this occult matters, understood that he would not be able to use this pool for now anymore.

With that the two started walking away from the treasury and in direction of the boss'room. A boss that was patiently waiting for a chance to kill the mongrels that dared to invade his home.

A crime worth of death.

* * *

Finally, the two reached it, the boss room. Well, more like the entrance but hey. The entrance definitely fit the bill of an ancient pharaoh's tomb in Castiel's eyes, with all the gold carvings and statues on either side looking like those warriors they fought before. There were these large pyres as well that were lit with flames, illuminating the entrance and giving it a rather sinister, evil and ominous atmosphere.

Just before they could head down to the tomb where the final boss lay, Nico had a thought. He knew about Castiel's curse abilities, though he suspected that there was more to it. He figured that since Castiel had experience in politics that he would try to keep aspects of his powers under wraps, something he could understand himself due to being secretive over his own powers too.

However, there was this uncomfortable sensation in his gut, a sensation that he soon isolated the source from: knowledge. Knowledge about each other. Nico knew some of Castiel's powers, but he hardly knew much about Nico's own. Now normally, Nico wouldn't mind something like this, as the less people knew about his abilities, the better. However, this world was not connected to his own by any means, and so far while irritable, Castiel had proven to be a fairly open-minded individual. Therefore, wouldn't it be alright for him to know? He knows about Nico's DPU form after all.

Not to mention, the fact that they weren't on an even playing field when it came to knowledge, and that revelation bothered Nico more than he had expected it would.

Therefore, just before they could head into the final Boss area, the Tomb, Nico decided to speak up.

"Hey, Emiya."

"Hm?"

"Since I asked you a question about your powers earlier, would you like to ask me anything about mine? It seems only fair, and perhaps the knowledge might help us in some way during this final boss fight." Nico questioned.

"Hmm, I think my only doubt right now is if your stronger attacks take too long to charge, if they have some form of cool down time and what is the limit of your defenses, both physical and soul related. I would like to know that to better strategize the next fight and to know what you and I should look out for now and in the next missions." Castiel explained. He already understood that Nico was the excessively secretive type so he didn't want to force him to reveal a lot since the chance of lying or half truths would be far too high and he'd rather not have the information than incorrect one when planning a fight.

It is better not to pressure the other too much, and this degree of information isn't that much and is completely acceptable to share as it can be seen as essential for planning.

"Why do you need info about my soul defenses" Nico asked, wariness in his lone uncovered eye as he doesn't have any good memory about soul related attacks. Te last time he had one was when he first fought the DPU of Death after all, an if he hadn't dodged it in time then that attack would have killed him. Just a graze and it nearly extinguished him, something that he did NOT like.

"Because more than half of the traps I disarmed were soul related. Most of the illusion or charming types so we can expect the boss here to either have a soul related ability or to be some form of trap or effect inside this room related to soul skills. I am good about it since it is almost impossible to use these on me but I must know about your side as well." Castiel explained. Thanks to his skull spirit bone he was mostly invulnerable to this sort of thing, unless someone many levels stronger used them on him but this sort of being could just kill him with one move so why bother to use a soul related attack.

'Great, looks like I found myself one of my biggest weaknesses...' Nico thought to himself with well-hidden agitation. It always pissed him off knowing that there was something he was absolutely weak to, especially something so uncommon in his world. Nico mentally searched for ways to convey this, before he finally went and reluctantly told Castiel that he had little to no defense against such attacks, explaining the attack that had almost killed him the best he could.

Didn't make Castiel any happier, though. "So you are useless to soul attacks. Sigh, to think just a single burst of soul attack almost killed you before, you really are useless against them."

"Hey, that attack was incredibly strong." Nico retorted angrily.

However, Castiel just looked at him as if he was dumb. "Yeah, but that is LITERALLY the weakest and most basic form of attack against the soul. It can be easily guarded against as it has limited capacity. The truly powerful soul attacks usually involve illusions or charming others for a while to make them lose themselves long enough to allow for an attack on the soul or the body. Heck, there are a few that can fuse soul attacks with illusions and physical attacks too, and if what you said about the edicts is any true than that attack he used on you IS the weakest possible. So how can I call you anything but useless on soul related attacks?" Castiel said.

"Okay, I'll admit that my main weakness is soul-related matters, but to be fair back in my world my first experiences with Soul Attacks are only recent." Nico countered, evenly.

That information caught the Heir's attention, his eyes switching from exasperated to understanding. "Ahhh, that explains it. Your world is focused only on the faster to learn physical attacks, I get that now. But, you should REALLY look for ways to overcome this weakness as fast as possible, we don't know what we will face on the next missions and training how to defend your soul isn't a instantaneous thing either. Maybe you should look into getting a soul defense item, I already have one but you should look for one as fast as possible too." Castiel explained.

"On that, I'll have to agree... if that guy uses the Edict of Death on me again, I'll need something to help me protect against that." Nico eventually nodded in response, though it wasn't easy. Hey, admitting ones own weakness was never an easy thing to do.

Castiel's look showed that he understood this just as well as anyone. "Well, at least this gives me an idea of how to plan our next strategy. Lets go, odds are we'll get swarmed the moment we enter this Tomb." the Heir commented as the two entered the Tomb.

The moment they entered, the two boys drew their weapons, Hruting for Castiel and Rebellion for Nico. They each got into their battle stances just in case they were to get their own asses swarmed by any number of enemies... only for nothing to come to them. For a moment, they just waited to see if anything would come, but nothing did.

"Well, that's a letdown..." Castiel remarked with disappointment, lowering Hruting. Though he still hoped something would prove him wrong. Still, this gave him a chance to look about the room, and he got the impression that this was not a normal Tomb. For one, right across the middle was a long, large crack, beneath being countless screaming humanoid torsos with arms. All of them hissed and shrieked when they sensed the presences of the two males, like they were going to be getting some new playmates soon. Judging from the heat he was getting, there was likely a river of lava down at the bottom. The Heir spies dozens of pyres scattered throughout the area, along with statues holding an assortment of different weapons.

But the most important thing he, along with Nico, noticed was that there was this large door at the opposite side of the room, a door that had a golden gong next to it. The gong had the same emblem that they had been seeing throughout the entire Pyramid, making each of them wary. Whatever this place was, with all the heat around it gave off a feeling of approaching the entrance to the underworld itself. There were some statues that looked like scorpions in various poses as well, drawing Nico's attention for a bit before he refocused on the task at hand.

"It looks to me that we will have to do something about that gong." He stated, pointing to the Gong. "Its positioning next to that door leads me to suspect it is used to wake up the final boss, like a final key to resurrecting a dead god."

Castiel hummed in thought when he said that, cupping his chin in is free hand as his mind went into tactician mode. "Lets shoot the damn thing from over here. That way, if there are any traps they won't be triggered, by us anyways."

Nico wondered what he meant by that, before he quickly figured it out and complied. Both of them switched weapons, Nico switching to Ebony and Ivory, while Castiel switched to Gandiva. The two then unleashed a single set of shots each, the three projectiles flying parallel to each other until they met the gong with enough impact force for it to let out a loud sound.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Almost immediately after the Gong resonated, a loud masculine roar ripped through the Tomb, making it treble just from the roar alone. Shock-waves ripped through the place, causing cracks to appear all over the ground while the boys used their swords (the same ones from before) to keep their balance. The many humanoids beneath the main crack all began squealing wildly and excitedly, flailing their arms about to make sea of limbs like fans at a stadium supporting their team. Total chaos dominated the room, and to one of its occupants chaos was NOT a good thing.

"W-Whoa! shit!"

"You're telling me!"

By the time that the shaking stopped, the two boys heard creaking sounds that came from the door itself. The sounds of stone scraping across the ground filled the air as the door opened ever so slowly, all the while Nico and Castiel separated, each adopting their own stances while eyeing the opening door warily. Whatever power lay within, the moment that door began to open they began to sense it. That power, both boys had felt something similar to it in their own worlds, a feeling of death and despair that no mortal could ever hope to match. This power surpassed that of the Devils in Castiel's world by leaps and bounds, while also rivaling the Demon Princes of Nico's world.

From within the darkness, a shadowy figure opened its eyes, lifting its head to notice the doors to its slumber had opened, revealing two prey for him to slay. A low, dark and twisted snarl escaped its lips as many legs brought themselves to bear, gripping the walls to help it climb down while it dragged claws along the stone. This made scraping sounds much more audible to the boys compared to the scraping the opening door made before.

Soon, the being stepped out of the darkness, thwacking the doors opening to expose its form to them both in all its splendor. Nico and Castiel gazed upon the sight of what looked like a mix between man... and scorpion, there was a human torso, shoulders and head, with black mid back-length hair. matching eyes too. However, that was where the human ended and the scorpion took over, for his arms down to where the elbows should be became chitinous flesh, ending in scorpion pincers the length of a human forearm. The stomach and a portion of the torso was similar as it connected to the front of a scorpion body, many legs on either side as sharp as blades themselves. Two longer arms protruded from the side of the connection point, ending in deadly crab claws. At the back of the body, was a long tail, tipped with a classic scorpion stinger.

Not only that, there was a special aura about him that Castiel recognized. A familiarity that he couldn't place. For a moment he didn't know what the heck it was, but when he tried to feel out the energy within this guy/scorpion thing (even though he wondered how it was capable of HAVING energy since he could sense insanity and madness roaring within it) he could sense something, something powerful within this being. Something that far surpassed this being in every way possible. Yet, it was not doing anything, not one bit.

It quickly reminded him of that power he had sensed sleeping within Nico before they fought. A power that did not deem them worthy of its time, rather it found sleeping to be more worthwhile. Even now, he could feel Clarent's power starting to boil inside of him, outraged at being taken lightly by this being. This would not stand, not in its eyes. It was a weapon worthy of kings, how dare it try to demean its might so easily.

Nico himself felt something similar. It felt like Soul Edge wanted to rip itself out of him and tear this thing apart. Though not because it was taking its and its wielder lightly, no it was not so fickle that way. No, it wanted to fight, it wanted to do so much worse: it wanted to rip, tear and shred this enemy staring them down. To tear apart everything this opponent believed in from the foundation, to take everything it had away from it. Those were the feelings he was getting from the Devil Arm of his soul right now... thing is, the OTHER Devil Arms he possessed felt the same. This was one of the few times, the first being that time near the end of everything that happened at Leanbox, that these competitive weapons all unanimously agreed on one thing.

Throughout the room, various Magic Circles, bounded fields and runes formed from nothingness, almost illuminating the room with their power. More importantly though... "I may not be an expert, but I get the feeling these things are meant to keep both us, and this motherfucker, trapped in here." Nico commented as he readied Rebellion. The Devil Arm in his hands shook with intense glee, excited for the prospect of fighting once more. Nico narrowed his lone eye at them, his instincts telling him that they were NOT to be messed with by inexperienced hands.

This made him note to himself to ask MAGES. for help in identifying their functions next time he saw her...

"Yeah, not only that but these all seem to enhance this guy in some way. There's too many for me to tell what though, these are far more complex than the ones I'm used to. This definitely feels like a final boss to me." Castiel responded, nodding in agreement. He got the same feelings as Nico just from reading some of these highly complex arrays, though he wished he could read more, Castiel would rather have done so when there wasn't a Scorpion/human hybrid monster getting in the way. Said being was slowly stepping towards them like a lion baring his pincers while snipping them threateningly, glancing between the two of them. While it did so, both boys had one thought cross their minds.

This would be a tough battle.

Still though, upon looking him over, Castiel had another epiphany, and afterwards he couldn't help but growl in annoyance while shaking his fist in the air. "Goddamnit Uncle, where the hell did you find this 'the rock' wannabe?" he shouted to the skies.

As if to respond, there was some sad saxophone music that played 'mew-mew-mweeeee' electing an "oh fuck you too!"

"You can fuck your Uncle later, we got trouble incoming!"

Castiel, upon hearing Nico's shout (though he did give him the stink eye for that fucking his uncle comment), noticed that the The Rick wannabe had already made its move, lunging towards them at speeds that left him a blur. His instincts saved him as he raised Hruting to block several legs from spearing him, deflecting several more strikes from them before rolling underneath it and attempting to slice open its bottom. Unfortunately for him, the moment that Hruting's blade met the creatures flesh, it felt like he had hit a magically reinforced wall as his blade easily bounced off the creature's being.

Before he could react by like rolling out from under it, the creature made to slam itself on top of the Heir, crushing him under its weight if not for a set of nigh invisible Tentacles to slam into the creature's side, doing no damage to it either but sending it sliding away from Castiel, who got grabbed by one of Nico's Bikaku Tails by wrapping around his waist, lifting him into the air and then lowering him to Nico's side. Nico himself had his Kakugan out, having just pocketed something while grasping Rebellion and infusing it with Hellfire.

Raising it to the air, Nico brought Rebellion down and unleashed a mighty Hellfire wave from his blade, a wave that trailed across the ground towards its opponent. However, the Scorpion Man turned to look at it, releasing a dismissive snort (much to Nico#s irritation) as a magic circle appeared in front of it, catching the blast before it could even touch the creature. The user's irritation soon changed to surprise when he saw how the flames got absorbed into the Magic Circle, then unleashed back at him with the intensity of its true form.

This time, Castiel became the one to save Nico, repaying the debt by forming multiple Barriers in time to catch the Hellfire before it could hit them, though the teen had to grit his teeth when he felt the force of the flames pushing against his defenses, causing his feet t dig into the ground beneath them. 'S-Shit!' he cursed in his mind.

'Tch, looks like this creature can repel our attacks back at us with twice the damage output...' Nico thought to himself during this. He would have tried to cancel the blast out with his own Hellfire, but he didn't want to cause an explosion that would definitely damage him and Castiel severely. He didn't want to test the limits of his companion's healing, and while he had the capacity to regenerate, he would rather not potentially overtax it. 'Biko, can you think of anything?'

 **'Grasp onto Castiel's shoulder and activate a Warp. It'll take him along with you since he is connected to you through physical contact.'**

'Got it.'

With that conversation over, Nico quickly grabbed onto Castiel's shoulder, electing a surprised glance from the Heir before Nico activated his Warping ability. Both vanished in a crimson red spark, avoiding the Hellfire blast which surged uselessly across the room.

Reappearing beside the trail of destruction, Nico and Castiel looked to the said destruction, whistling before looking to each other. "Okay, that was a canny ability, but what now? Looks like our attacks don't faze it." the Heir questioned, frowning in thought. "It has to be to do with those Bounded Fields, they must be supplying it with strength and abilities, ones we haven't seen yet from the short conflict we already had."

"Agreed..." Nico responded, tethering Rebellion to his back before summoning Harvester and using SHADOW PACK, summoning those wolf/scorpion Hybrid along with a SHADOW SERPENT to keep their opponent busy. Biko had told him how risky using the power of a Devil Arm undergoing the same process Alastor did was, but right now they needed to keep it occupied while they formed a strategy. Each of the darkness constructs began to attack the Scorpion Man with reckless savagery, with the SHADOW SERPENT leading the charge. All the while, the Scorpion Man let out a gluttonous roar as it charged back, slamming into the horde and whipping about. "It appears that one of us will have to distract him while the other finds a way to weaken his abilities. I'll play the decoy for now, you focus on the Bounded Fields, since you're the better experienced one out of us two in that field."

Castiel nodded, just what he had been thinking. "I'll make sure to be as quick as I can, don't want my companion for this shit to bite the dust too early, now do we?" he remarked, smirking at his companion.

Said companion made an eye roll, his expression hidden behind his Mask. Though judging by the glint in his eye, the young Heir felt like he had the same sentiments as him. "Right back at you. Soul Edge would rather not lose a potential rival without the chance for a rematch."

"Same here."

'Wow, talk about complex. I don't have a single fucking clue about how to go at disarming this ones... wait a sec, why should I disarm them? I heard since long ago that it is much easier to simply destroy a bounded field. I just never did destroy the ones before because I feared that their destruction could cause some problems down the road but now there shouldn't be any traps or other stuff to worry about. Destruction it is!'.

And thus Castiel started to focus in identifying the location of the centre of the bounded fields.

* * *

It was not being that easy of a job as he had to pass through many smaller bounded fields that were focused on defending the main ones, Castiel did not care even as multiple rocks hitted his body over and over, he simply trusted his body's natural defense to mitigate any impact.

Thus he continued his personal fight against the clock.

While his companion began dealing with the Bounded Fields, Nico jumped about the room, making sure to constantly remain on the move. He had planned for a constant harass strategy using his two Devil Arms Harvester and Absolution, the former to keep the Scorpion Man focused on the darkness constructs, while the latter would harass it with DC spike attacks. Since these weapons were made to be two hands, it would have been difficult to use both of hem at the same time, but luckily for him Nico had experience in dual wielding.

Things went well for the redhead teen, until the Scorpion Man gave a larger roar out of nowhere, rattling the entire room. From there, dozens of black masses came out from the ground, peeling through it and rising upwards, until Nico had about half a room's worth of those jackal-humanoids surrounding him and his forces.

'Oh goddamnit...'

They all roared, charging at Nico and his forces for their master. This made the male quickly resort to literally ABUSING his Devil Arms' powers by overloading them with his power, Harvester more than Absolution as he conjured up more and more Darkness Constructs with SHADOW PACK and SHADOW SERPENT by the dozens to keep up with the assault coming down on him like rainfall.

Now, not only did he have to keep his forces occupying the Scorpion Man (who kept tearing through them with its Claws, Pincers, Legs and Tail) but now he needed help to get these jackal humanoids off his back.

Good thing then that was something Absolution could help with, as he had the Devil Arm engage its DC AVATAR Form. The Weapon quickly unleashed is ooze, ooze which covered him in its embrace as the transformation quickly applied to him. In seconds, the DC Avatar form of Nico completed itself, and with a furious roar Nico charged at his opponents, swinging his two weapons left and right with the fury and bloodlust not unlike those of the Khornate worshipers back in his home dimension.

One of their blades managed to scratch his DC Avatar form through the constant combat, deep enough to barely touch his form within. The moment it did though, Nico nearly screamed out as a huge surge of pain coursed through him, a pain that his eye within the DC AVATAR Form bulged in recognition. He recognized this pain as his current Form regenerated the damage and allowed him to slice through that warrior by cutting off its head. 'Shit... these blades! Biko, these are...!'

 **'Indeed, this is most alarming. These weapons, they have been enchanted likely by the Bounded Fields. Unlike before, they now have the power to inflict damage to our Soul directly. It is like what Emiya said, these Soul Attacks are our greatest weakness so far. However, the damage this time was nothing compared to the Edict of Death that we got hit by back then. In comparison, its like an ant to a Serpent. In addition, it appears that the damage was limited due to the DC AVATAR Form concealing your true body.'**

'My thoughts exactly, Biko.'

With that in mind, Nico quickly tethered Harvester to his back with Rebellion, for his next idea he had to have both hands on Absolution to work. He then swung vertically in a 36 degree angle, sending a similar DC WAVE towards his enemies whom couldn't react in time. They all got covered in the ooze, which sunk into their flesh and onto their bones to slow them down considerably. A chorus of furious roars showed that his tactic worked, making Nico chuckle darkly when he saw how his collection of Darkness Constructs tore his enemies apart now that they couldn't react as quickly.

By the time 5 minutes had passed, all of the warriors had been slaughtered, none of them remaining whilst the Bracelet, even under the DC AVATAR, absorbed something from each of them. Though, Nico made no indication that he noticed at this point as he charged against the Scorpion Man, whom just finished killing the last of his Darkness Constructs.

The two collided once more, entering the next stage of their battle.

'Emiya, you better be doing good otherwise I may take this guy out myself...'

* * *

'Shit, I must hurry up. Nico doesn't seem to realize that everything he is doing is meaningless right now. He should have just focus on delaying his opponent, so why does he keeps trying to face him head on while wasting his energy?' Castiel thought as he saw the two fighting, he too was on a sticky situation since he has fallen into a small trap that forced his body to face a higher gravity the closer he walked to the focal point of the bounded fields.

Right now the gravity was 30 times Earth's gravity, and every step raised it one more time. But the young heir was displaying a small smile as he felt this.

his existing ones, increasing the destructive power of his Arsenal. Despite his... disposition towards overall destructive capability, power was still needed, so he needed to up the ante here.

'Well, at least this gravity will help me in training my body to better distribute the new energy I just absorbed.' Castiel knew that this sort of explosive gains in any area could easily lead to problems down the road if there wasn't a stable base, and this gravity was a great way to make this new found physical capacity a resilient and strong foundation for future development.

* * *

Nico quickly learned how every strike he launched against the Scorpion Man amounted to being completely useless, for no matter what level of power he put into his swings, they never even pierced its skin. He couldn't even put a dent into it, not even when he resorted to his Rinkaku one moment before re-assuming his DC AVATAR Form. It seemed to him that those Bounded Fields provided it strong immunity to physical attacks, hell even his Skill Attacks didn't do as much as a graze to it. Still, during their bout the Scorpion Man would summon small groups of his jackal-headed warriors to attack him, of which he would have to focus on tearing them apart with both Absolution and Harvester.

Whilst he did all of that, Nico had his Demon Persona try to analyze the dark power slumbering within their enemy, to try and see what it is and why the Scorpion Man wasn't using it. One thing that they did uncover was apparently that this creature had suffered from a severe case of madness, for its insanity levels had been through the roof. Nico had almost lost control over himself when he sensed how much there was roiling within it, and aside from that there was little else that indicated this thing had intelligence.

'Biko, do you think we can get anywhere with these Bounded Fields?' The teen questioned his Demon Persona.

 **'Unfortunately, but it does not seem to be the case. I can sense how these Bounded Fields are amplifying its powers, as well as granting these boons to its body like THOSE. I doubt Soul Edge would be able to do much either, unless it was in its True Form when its power is at its greatest. Though, I do not believe it wise to transform within here, we do not know the limits this place will enforce upon the DPU Form. Our only chance is to keep this guy occupied while Emiya disables the Bounded Fields...'**

This made Nico curse under his breath, quickly sidestepping a stab from one of the Scorpion man's claws. He swung in a reverse upward swing, knocking the arm upwards butt not damaging it in the least. With that, he twisted into a reverse back kick, knocking the enemy backwards. A glutteral chuckle escaped its lips as it dug its many legs into the ground, slowing its motion to a halt.

Deciding that Absolution wouldn't do much, Nico decided to dismiss the DC AVATAR Form, switching completely to Harvester as the weapon rattled within his grasp. The teen quickly used a TELEPORT SLASH to appear behind it and knock its legs out from beneath it. He then jumped backwards to avoid it's Tail which had tried too stab him from overhead.

Being smaller would mean that he wouldn't have as great an attack power, however right now thanks to everything that he had learned about this enemy, it would be better to be small and nimble so its attacks would be harder to hit. Not only that, but Nico had evaluated its fighting patterns, apparently it liked to make charges into wide curving stabs that would come from different angles. The type of angle depended on which Pincer was used, and if that attack missed, the Scorpion Man would have used the Claw beneath that Pincer for a follow up.

Case in point, when the creature got up and rushed him, Nico sidestepped its right pincer first, then side flipped the opposite direction over a wider sweeping motion from its right Crab Claw. He then ducked under a swing from the other claw, raising Harvester to block the following strike of its Pincer. The teen gritted his teeth as he found himself sliding backwards, quickly unleashing a Rinkaku Tentacle to whack it in the face with enough force that it would be sent sliding backwards. One good thing though, was that even with its protection Nico found that it couldn't see his vibrating Rinkaku Kagune, and since it didn't have the same abilities as Hruting, Nico didn't have to worry about rapidly dwindling RC Cell reserves.

Raising Harvester to the air, Nico brought it down while activating HARVEST, the Scorpion Man jumping to the side to block it. Harvester thrummed with power, dangerous and volatile power but power nonetheless, as Nico held it in a ready stance. He could feel the Red Rage Ring inside of him pulsating, the male mentally activating it for the rage inside. The result: an explosion of pure anger and malice ripping through his body like a gushing geyser, one that he focused into his Demonic Power reserves. This made them swell in intensity, size and potency, before he pumped it into Harvester to make 6 SHADOW SERPENTS. He then, through Harvester, ordered them to restrain the Scorpion Man while he had noticed a familiar purple symbol on its abdomen area.

While the SHADOW SERPENTs quickly did their jobs, slithering over the creature and pinning it to the ground by its 4 arms and tying its legs together, a Magic Circle appeared beneath it and allowed many Plasma Chains to burst out, further restraining it. The Scorpion Man yelled out in shock, surprise and outrage at this development, pulling at his restraints like a furious bloodhound on a sugar rush, only to not get anywhere. Normally it wouldn't have much difficult breaking out, its physical ability had been determined by the male to be no joke whatsoever. But, that was before Nico had activated the Red Rage Ring, which amplified his own powers enough to have them become much more effective than normal.

Now, all he had to do was keep it there while Castiel did his thing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Castiel was facing a challenge of his own. The gravity was now around 100 times Earth's normal level. It felt like a mountain was sitting in another Mountain that was laying down on his back. Not only that but he also was feeling waves of heat and cold continually. He was certain that if it was before the use of that Herb he would have already reached his limit long ago.

Now he was just facing serious problems moving forward, but a smile appeared on his face as he got a look at what was in the center of the boumded field supplying the energy.

'Fucl yeah, it is a pure solar crystal and a midnight gem. These just might be what the Cosmoems needs to finish its evolution!'

As he saw the crystal a maniacal smile surged on his face. He activated his goulden foundation armor while also releasing his wings as he used the power of his name to withstand the pressure and with one move he rushed forward to snatch those two treasures.

'Well, some of their energy has already been sucked away but these still might help.' He thought as he ignored Nico trying to act cool as he used his Ring's power to increase his skills, but was swatted away with a move from the monster's tail when he got too close. There wasn't much damage on Nico, but the fact remained that the scorpion king still hasn't suffered a single actual injury.

'Sigh, couldn't he focus more on simply delaying the enemy? Is he that used to head on confrontations? He should change that already, or this might get him killed one day. I think I will tell him that later... oh who am I kidding? He wouldn't listen to a single word of advice from me anyway, he is too prideful on his skills while only being just close to low super-class.' Castiel thought in resignation and a bit of disdain. He might not know about how dangerous Nico's world is, but Castiel's world is packed full of beings that could destroy entire countries in a matter of instants. On his perspective, victory isn't always a straight forward thing. He also noticed how Nico seemed to show a bit of disdain for anything he considered morally wrong, and that was ridiculous in Castiel's eyes. Learning and actually adapting for the situation is what he learned since young, and seeing those little tells from Nico annoyed him to no end.

Castiel then took out Clarent and with the power amplifier ability it had Castiel took a deep breath and jumped at the monster with a mighty slash he managed to cut down one of it's legs.

"It can be damaged now! Attack!" Castiel shouted at Nico.

* * *

The moment that Castiel had yelled that out, Nico quickly registered it alongside his companion's recent action. Seeing it for himself convinced him that the heir wasn't lying, not to mention his senses had told him something similar just before the Heir had attacked. 'Alright, now that this fucker's on the defensive now...' The male thought when he noticed the abrupt change in posture their opponent had. The moment that the Scorpion Man felt the Bounded Fields protecting it vanish out of existence, it had let out a startled yelp whilst stepping backwards away from them... not like Nico would be letting that happen. His mind quickly formed a plan to end this battle now, cause he just wanted this thing to be dead already.

First, the legs. Nico started off by dismissing Harvester (his creations had been knocked aside and killed already, the Scorpion Man having just broken free before his companion did the slashing thing), and releasing his Rinkaku. The 6 invisible Tentacles quickly lunged forth, their immense speed and power fuelled by the redhead's own killing intent as they tore through the creature's legs in one go... all 8 of the scorpion legs being severed at the same time. As a result of this, the main Scorpion body and the humanoid upper half fell to the ground, the creature shrieking in pain all the while as it snipped the air around it wildly with the Pincers.

Second, get in close. True Nico could have just torn into it with his Kagune at that moment, but he wanted that fucker's heart in his hands as he crushed it for all the trouble it had caused. That, and he didn't want to risk that dark power suddenly striking at his Kagune and infesting it (much like what happened with his Koukaku against Mundus back at Halo Mountain). Thus, Nico chose to, when he saw it about to use some sort of Skill just then, seal it within his right leg Spirit Bone whilst he charged towards it with Harvester vanishing into his Void Storage and Rebellion replacing it. All the while, the redhead noticed Castiel doing the same thing, charging in from the right flank with Clarent radiating pure power.

Both of them had a single thought together as they reared their blades back for the finishing blow...

'This is the end!'

But just before they could land that blow...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!


	91. cross-over chap 6

The dust began to settle, and groans were heard within. Nico groaned to himself, lying on the ground while his body recovered from the initial aftermath from their attack. He gripped the floor with his gloved hands, his fingers digging into it while he pushed himself upwards, groaning at the feeling of cracking bones throughout his body. His regeneration was already hard at work repairing his body, he could feel it, and his Demonic Power was speeding things up. His mind whirled, his vision hazy, and Nico almost fell onto his backside had he not balanced himself in time while getting to his feet.

When his vision cleared, Nico noticed that Castiel, his companion in this fight, had also stirred into the land of the conscious, and was quickly getting to his feet while muttering curses under his breath. 'Well, looks like he's alright...' the redhead couldn't help but think. Looking around, he finally found Rebellion laying sprawled on the ground, so he bent over and picked it up by the hilt. A rush of joy, thrill and happiness filled him which came from his link with this Devil Arm, emotions that originated from the recent clash they had done with their opponent.

'Ugh... this smarts... haven't felt like this in a while...' He couldn't help but think as his regeneration finished up his internal healing. At least it wasn't as bad as when he lost all his limbs in the Hellverse, THAT had been one hell of an eye opener. Mentally, he checked his reserves, and found that his Demonic Power was at half its reserves, his SP was at a similar level, and his RC Cells were only a quarter used. Made sense, since he hadn't used his Kagune as much as his other energy sources. Still though, this battle hadn't been easy, not as difficult as say the battles with the World Eater Legion, the DPU of Death Mundus, or some of the stronger Demons he had fought throughout Leanbox, but still way up there compared to Abnormals.

 **'It would be wise to regroup with Emiya, Nico. If by some chance our enemy hasn't been defeated yet, then we must be cautious.'**

Biko's words gave Nico pause, his lone eye narrowing as he tried to get a feel for the Scorpion Man's emotional state. If the thing was still alive, a whole load of negative emotions should be coursing through it by now. 'I don't sense anything around here, but I'll keep your word, Biko. Besides, we need to know the condition Emiya is in. If he needs any assistance, we can provide it if necessary.' he thought to his Demon Persona, getting a hum of agreement from him before he cut the link and proceeded to make his way over to the young Heir.

* * *

Castiel was doing considerably better, his body was extremely resilient thanks to the new improvements he has gone through and he also activated his personal magic **Siegfried** so he was mostly fine. His only real problem being that his body was covered in superficial wounds and that he had suffered a contusion making him confused for a while.

Sensing someone approaching, the Heir looked to see Nico walking up to him, and gave a nod of acknowledgement to him. "Nico."

The male curtly gave the same response "Emiya." For a moment, the two remained silent, with the exception of Castiel getting back to is feet and dusting himself off. Then, the redhead turned away as he cast his gaze across the area, searching for any signs of early attack. None came, something that set off alarms in his mind. "You think that the enemy's dead?" Nico questioned, his hands in his leg-wear's pockets while looking about for the remains of their enemy. He didn't think that there was a chance the mission was over, not by a long shot. Nothing had changed, no transport out of this dimension, no 'game complete' screen that he had guessed Zelretch would spawn at the end, nothing, and that was more than enough for him to remain on guard. Also, if anyone was curious, Nico's Armour had receded into its Armour Module by the time he had come too, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice.

After recovering from his previous state, Castiel surveyed their surroundings, which were still a bit too dusty to tell, but he had an answer ready for Nico anyways. "Not sure, but if I know Uncle Zelretch, then I bet that this will be some sort of extra to the battle, like the final boss has a stronger form to take type of situation." He then frowned, eyes glimmering as an idea came to him which caused him to turn to face the redhead. "You say that your Spirit Bone has the ability to seal away Skills right? You think you can check to see if it still has it?" Castiel asked. If he was interpreting what little info he knew about Nico's Spirit Bone right, then if it still had the Skill sealed within it would determine their enemy's fate.

That sounded like a promising idea, Nico thought to himself, as he looked down to his right leg. He could feel the weight on his leg that accompanied a Spirit Bone's summoning there, which would mean that it hadn't vanished yet. Therefore, Castiel's idea should work. His gaze found itself on the Spirit Bone itself, and when it did...

They saw that the Spirit Bone was still quivering like it was trying to hold something in.

"Lemme guess, that means that it's ability is still active?"

"I call it 'Blockade', but yeah, which means the enemy is still breathing."

Both boys nodded to each other, their eyes reflecting the seriousness in them. After their brief conversation, both Nico and Castiel quickly got into battle stances, looking throughout the dirt to see where the enemy might be hiding. They hadn't been attacked right away, which hinted at the enemy going for a stealthier approach (well, as stealthy as a human/scorpion hybrid the size of a small car could be, at least).

The air was silent, not a sound in their ears indicating any hostile movement. Their eyes scanned the are around them, searching for even the slightest hint of hostile movement. None of that was found however, and it only caused them to be more on the defensive. The air became deceptively calm, with an intense undertone that layered itself onto their chests like the curse that had been there before. If there was any background music, then it would have to be one that pronounced the ominous tension in the atmosphere.

"You see anything...?" Castiel questioned, making to expand his senses to see if he could feel the enemy's signature. However, he got nothing, and that worried the young Heir. Not only would not sensing the enemy make him think of Serenity's stealth skills (something that intensified his hate for this creature tenfold) but it also provided the Scorpion Man with an ideal opportunity for a surprise attack. Not something he liked to think about considering the ways that it killed that one guy in the movie the mummy returns.

Nico shook his head in denial. "Nothing on my end..." he replied, his head slowly turning from side to side with his lone eye taking in as much detail as he could. Unfortunately, even with this he could not detect anything to indicate a surprise attack, something that deeply unsettled the male. He couldn't sense much either, not with his senses, both normal and emotional, and not even his Armour (which he had deployed for its Motion Tracking abilities) could track anything to do with it. He had Rebellion Tethered to his back, with his Obliteron claws out, illuminating their surroundings.

Neither of them liked this, not one bit. They didn't like how they couldn't sense the Scorpion Man's presence no more, not even a pip from it. It felt wrong, unnaturally so, and that was saying something considering how the Scorpion Man had been during their bout. It had been all physical, violent and always on a rampage, going from one place to another. It didn't move with much intelligence, and both boys had their own ways of confirming their own methods of identifying how much insanity was hindering its thought process.

 **'This may be not the ideal time, but there was something I noticed before the initial collision.'**

'Biko?' Nico questioned, frowning while looking like he was still keeping an eye out. His senses on full alert, his Kagune ready to whip away at anything that showed even remotely small signs of hostility. The instincts of an animal were much more acute than a human's, after all, so he let his body handle that while his mind began focusing on the conversation between himself and his Demon Persona. 'What are you saying...?'

 **'I'm saying that this is something that only just happened, I noticed it before. Just before we collided, I noticed that this strange power within it quickly** **activated. It was the millisecond before our weapons clashed, so I couldn't get a good read on it, but I am positive that something has happened. Odds are, Emiya may have noticed as well, he is not someone to have not noticed these things.'**

That... did not sound good, not at all.

Now that he thought about it, Nico did recall that there had been something... different about the Scorpion Man right before their collision. It was subtle, so subtle that it was almost like an illusion that a Mage would cast. However, if someone like Biko, who was reliable as all hell, noticed it then he would have to believe him about it.

On his end, Castiel had similar thoughts to his own. The young Heir didn't get it, but there had been something... different about their enemy's signature just before he clashed with it. Not to mention Clarent felt... off, it felt anxious. It felt like a King would hen the King would learn of a great threat to his Kingdom, a threat that may very well topple his castle and reduce the Kingdom to ashes. Throughout history, there have been countless examples of this happening, of tyrannical kings getting toppled by outside forces.

'This feels off...' Castiel thought while hewing non the inside of his gums with his teeth confusion and agitation fighting for dominance within his gut while he gripped Clarent's handle tightly. He could feel himself sweating slightly from his forehead, the tension in the air becoming thicker and thicker with each passing second. His heart beat became harder and harder to maintain, its steady beat slowly dipping into a ragged state. 'I don't like this, something about that collision feels very off. The moment that me and Nico clashed with that Scorpion King clone, I felt something 'erupt' within it just before it happened.' he thought, scowling to himself. If only he had Eevee here, he could go Umbreon Mode and then possibly confirm the feelings that he was getting. Glancing behind him, he noticed the agitated state that the Tentacles and Tails were in, and quickly concluded that Nico felt the same way.

Then...

It happened.

FWOOOOOOOOSH!

"Whoa!"

"Oh shit!"

Castiel and Nico quickly ducked below, getting on all fours to avoid something that flew over their heads. Any second later and they would have lost their heads. Not something they would have wanted for themselves, thank you very much. The moment it passed overhead, it felt like an explosion of thunder right in their earbuds, tearing through both the physical and astral planes of existence. Whatever it was, they couldn't see since it flew so fast, but they could still see how it exploded upon impact with the ground.

Slowly, they got up and looked around, searching for the source of the projectile. None of them thought it wasn't, since it had been launched to kill them utterly dead. Plus, with how close it came to doing just that, neither wanted to take any chances. Yet, none of them got any breaks, for right above them dozens, and literally DOZENS of Magic Circles appeared over them, covering the entire ceiling and aiming right at them. All of them instantly glowed, like the barrels of a gun prepping to be fired.

Instincts saved the two as Castiel switched from Clarent to Hruting, and Nico unleashed his Rinkaku plus his Bikaku Kagune. Good thing too, cause the next second, the two boys got bombarded with a shower of light projectiles. On the move they became, Castiel letting Hruting slice through the particle attacks without letting them get close to him, though there were more than a few close calls. Nico on the other hand parried and slashed with his claws, while his Kagune parried the rest of them. Tentacles and Tails tore through the air like thousands of ravenous canines tearing through some unfortunate prey. Their ears rang with constant exploding sounds, energy laser sounds, and almost made them deaf if they were normal people. Yet, the barrage never ceased, never relented or slowed down. In fact, the longer it went on, the greater the speed, ferocity and intensity became.

Then, just as fast as it came, the barrage ended...

Followed by a blast of wind that forced them to cover their eyes.

By the time the wind ended, Nico and Castiel lowered their arms from their eyes, Nico's Kagune lowering as they turned to where the source of the wind originated. When they did however, their eyes (or eye in Nico's case) almost flew out of their sockets from what they saw.

"Holy..."

"For once, we agree Emiya."

Their eyes lay upon their opponent... or what they THOUGHT was their opponent. Originally they had expected to be the Scorpion Man. However, that was FAR from what they saw. Now, standing before them was this hulking humanoid being of 8 feet tall. It had a pair of Chitin clad legs that ended in sharpened hoofs for kicking. The legs were connected to a muscular upper body reminiscent of the original human section of the Scorpion Man, and at the centre of the stomach was what looked like a hole that ran right through, they could even see right through to the wall behind the being. The shoulders were bare, and just beneath the biceps more chitin could be seen, ending in two large hands. From the base of its spine, the duo saw what looked like a Scorpion Tail protruding from it, swaying lazily behind the being while its face looked exactly like the Scorpion Man's. The same skin tone, the same features, just with a Mask covering the left side of its face that looked reminiscent of a Scorpion's, with the human side of its face sporting an iris-less eye and the mask sporting a single crimson pupil less eye. On its back, was this large greatsword shaped like a Scorpion's Pincer, although the two boys could sense that this was NOT a normal sword.

"Ahhhh... this is much better." the enemy spoke much to their joint surprise, no trace of the animalistic furry he carried present in his tone. "I should thank you two for freeing me from that detestable form I was locked in before."

'This thing... did it just speak?' Nico wondered, something shared with by his companion. His Rinkaku and Bikaku shifted into defensive stances, ready to act in case the enemy were to try something. Rebellion rattled within his grasp, almost quivering in excitement from the thought of fighting a newer opponent. While it sent those emotions to its wielder, Nico couldn't ignore the trepidation in his gut about this, either. 'Biko, has this thing somehow gained intelligence?'

 **'I am not sure how, but it does indeed to be the case. I sense that its insanity is present, though it does not nearly have the** **amount** **of** **dominance** **over its rationality as it once did. You two better be cautious, this battle has escalated to a new level, we do not know WHAT this creature is truly capable of.'**

Castiel furrowed his brows as he tried to make heads or tails of what had happened here. So far though, all he had gotten was that somehow, that dark sensation he had gotten from this guy had removed the 'shackles' of insanity that bound the creature before. His experiences with curses and mind attacks told him this, as well as that this creature far surpassed its previous form in power. Not just power though, due to the lack of control its insanity had over its mental faculties, it now had greater knowledge on how to use its powers in the most destructive of ways.

If these observations were true, then it would be best to stay on guard.

"Yet, I also should punish you for invading my most glorious home." He spoke once more after spending a moment to look over its new form, experimentally cracking a few limbs to get the kinks out. The sound rivaled that of breaking pipes, sending chills down their spines, and despite looking at the two they got the feeling that he was most certainly talking to himself. "Now, what to do? What to do? ... Oh I just got an idea! I, the Scorpion King Mathayus, will kill you two fast and leave you with full corpses, so your loved ones have something to cry over. Ain't that nice of me?"

And with that the scorpion king launched itself forward with such speed that neither Nico or Castiel had time to react as it reappeared behind the two. Its motions were swift as the wind, yet held the impact of a high level earthquake as it kicked Castiel so fast and strong that if it wasn't for his recent improvement on the body he would have snapped in two. Nico quickly spun around and tried to cut through the enemy with a wide diagonal swing with Rebellion, but it was stopped on the being's arm without leaving more than a slight mark.

'What?!' He could only think while the creature simply shrugged the damage and launched a ball of concentrated crimson crackling energy directly at him. Due to the way that it was launched, the teen quickly realized he had no chance to dodge it, even if he Warped, so Nico used his Bikaku to guard his face, but...

CRACK, SHATTER

It had the adverse effect of breaking his Bikaku Kagune into pieces.

Cursing under his breath, Nico retracted his Bikaku into him so his RC Cells could focus on repairing it, all the while the teen quickly jumped to the side when he saw another concentrated energy ball charge right at him. Another came afterwards, and Nico finally responded to Warping out of the Way, reappearing above the creature with his Rinkaku raised for an overhead slam.

BOOM!

His Rinkaku slammed into the ground with enough force to bend it under the Kagune's weight, the impact force great enough that in his mind, he should have at least done some damage. 'Did I... get him?'

"No, you did not."

His eyes widened as Nico reflexively turned to the source of the voice, only to get a kick to his non-weapon arm that utterly broke it into an unnatural angle. Nico growled in frustration while he got sent flying from the kick, crashing into the ground and bouncing into the air again. The teen used this to right himself though, slamming his Kagune into the ground to stop his motions. Once halted himself, Nico raised two of them to parry the sword that would have cleaved him in two had he not acted as soon as he did.

"You... do not seem to be in pain even after I broke your arm." The creature, no Mathayus, remarked thoughtfully, though it sounded disinterested to the Spec Ops Agent. It's sword constantly quivered while pushing against Nico's Kagune which responded in kind.

Nico rolled his eyes at that while his lips set into a snarl. "Believe me, losing limbs is..." he paused when he felt is arm bend itself back into proper place thanks to his regeneration, allowing him to use it again as he shrugged its shoulder. "Nothing new, I lose them all the time, and that's just Mondays."

Before Mathayus could respond, it sensed someone coming from hits left flank, but made no effort to dodge the strike Clarent made on his unguarded back. Like Rebellion, it didn't seem to be able to pierce his being, much to its wielder's surprise as its Tail thwacked him away. This did give Nico an opportunity to Warp behind his airborne companion and catch him by his leg. "Got you." He stated, flipping Castiel so that he could land on his two feet.

"Thanks." the Heir simply stated, grimacing as he rubbed his shoulder where he got thwacked. He groaned as he felt like the shoulder dislocated, so he applied the training his teachers taught him and quickly moved it into the proper position, a resounding CRACK echoing through the room while he applied healing Blessings to numb the pain.

"... Hardcore."

"Says the person who didn't scream when his arm got broken. Anyways, looks like we have a problem here, our weapons can't pierce this guy's skin." Castiel replied, looking at their opponent who seemed to be more interested in his sword than actually killing them. It completely disregarded them as threats, and honestly that pissed him off more than he cared to admit. But, that didn't mean he would act recklessly. That would lead only to suicide, as they could plainly see. "While it practically mopped the floor with you, I took the chance to observe our new friend a little, so I have a basic idea of his movement patterns."

Nico mentally scowled at the wording, but didn't respond as he listened to Castiel explaining what he knew from their brief clash with this guy. "From what I can tel, this guy likes to use energy attacks to dismember opponents, then go in for the kill with one strike to the vital areas. Most prominently the head, though other areas may be possible depending on the situation. That could mean it isn't as good in prolonged combat as it is in single strike killings, but I'm not holding my breath."

"I noticed something else, to add to your assessment Emiya." the Heir glanced over to the Spec Ops Agent when he heard that. "From what I saw from his energy, it seems that his body naturally condenses a portion of his power over himself, creating this steel-like skin that excels in repelling physical attacks. Odds are its a defensive technique, but like all techniques it has to have a weakness. My guess is that we need to adapt to its energies, cancel each other's energy output before we can land any critical blows on him."

"Or, and hear me out, we hit him REALLY hard and try to pierce his defense." Their suggested, and Nico rolled his eyes at Castiel's words. That did NOT sound like a decent strategy to this guy, and in a bit of role reversal, Nico looked at Castiel like he was the dumb one. "What? Do you honestly want to try to fine tune energy with an enemy with unknown capacity, techniques and that you have never met before?" Now that he thought of that, Castiel did have a point there, hitting something till it dies did seem like an easier situation, but if not then Nico could always amplify his powers to a similar level to their enemy's based off their observations. If it didn't work, then they just had to keep trying till they found a way. "In case you are overwhelmed just run behind me and you will be safe, also don't forget that feather I gave you before." Castiel said, he did not believe that Nico or anyone for that matter could actually pull of this sort of suicidal strategy and honestly he did not want to try his luck. Sometimes, when all tips are out and only a head on confrontation is possible, simple IS better, this is what he learned with one of the greatest hero from all times.

Goku, and it was both the normal version and the abridged one.

Deep down, one of Castiel's dreams is to, when he had enough power, add THE Kamehameha on his list of skills.

In Nico's mind, the teen felt like he was in a war, such was the nature of the thoughts conflicting within him. He could feel his inner Ghoul squealing in delight at the possibility of a straight up fight, something he had expected from it due to its primitive nature. Also, if he were to be honest, simplistic fights were the ones that were the most familiar to him, sine he fought Abnormal monsters often as a Spec Ops Agent. Not to mention, a fight like this was what h e lived for, he was a warrior, a warrior who had been forced to fight in a battle of politics recently, so another battle he was used to in terms of style would be more than welcome.

While Nico was debating with himself Castiel ran ahead. Opening his wings and donning his armor he took out both Hruting and Clarent, the former on his left hand and the latter on his right, and using his fastest speed tried to cut down the enemy.

"Why don't you understand that it is useless?" Mathayus proclaimed while he raised one hand dismissively, swinging it in the form of a backhand... but the results were quite different than before.

SLASH

The fingers of Mathayus went flying, he face revealing surprise from this fact.

"Hard, but still cut-table." Was what Castiel said, his physical strength showing its effectiveness as he followed that slash with a kick that sent Mathayus flying. Castiel than drew on the floor at high speeds, ignoring the fact that Mathayus flew out of the hole he was and launched himself at him with a renewed ferocity.

'A worthy foe...' is what Mathayus thought as he tried to use his blade at Castiel. However, this was not to be since one of Castiel's wings entered in the way of the blade.

CLANCK

The blade was completely and utterly incapable of leaving a single mark at the wing. Honestly speaking Castiel didn't even feel the attack.

"How is this even possible?" is what Mathayus questioned in surprise, and this was the instant that the spell Castiel was preparing got completed.

From the magic circle he made dark currents followed out.

 **"Binding Resentment Chains"** Castiel proclaimed as he jumped back 10 meters as the chains disappeared from Mathayus' body.

"Insignificant trick!" he shouted as he tried to run at Castiel, but whem he was one meter away from Castiel. "Huh?" he went right back to where he was before.

"Did you like this trick? It is a little something I created while researching my curses. I am not proficient enough to activate it instantly but with some small preparations it is plenty possible to use. It is a curse that forces the target to not leave a certain area no matter how much he tries. And now for my next, what did you call, oh yeah my next trick." Castiel said with a evil smile. "Have a taste of one of my original spells! **BRIONAC**!"

With this shout he activated the spell he was charging from before, creating a focused flame blast so hot that Mathanyus' shoulder was pierced right through, electing from him a grunt of pain.

"And don't worry, there is MORE! **failure, weakness, sadness, despair, vanity, hunger, mistake, abandon, greed, misery, decomposition, agony, betrayal, envy, incompetence, loss, cowardice, torture, punishment, death, death, DEATH!"** With this series of curses the very air around Mathayus hurt to breath, pain and suffering an all encompassing reality for anyone that even approached that area.

If that wasn't enough, Nico joined in the battle by summoning Soul Edge. Immediately its PREDATOR ability activated, amplifying its energy through its own bloodlust. While running, the male's thoughts briefly went over to the spells that his companion used, his mind quickly coming up with thoughts and ideas about them, their workings and applications. He had to admit. the versatility of these Curses, judging by the effect they had on this enemy of theirs, was something to be feared. The male definitely wanted to find something that either grants him or boosts any kind of resistance to attacks like those in the future, cause their potential on the battlefield was staggering.

Soul Edge, now that he thought about it, had something similar with its BLOOD RAGE and SCORCHING AURA abilities, since they influenced their target's mental state. Same thing with the curses, both of them influence their targets, and depending on their target's mental states their effects can vary. From what he could tell though, these Curses are a lot more numerous than just his few abilities.

Though, unlike them these curses influenced the soul as well. Soul Edge just influenced the mind, which is also powerful in its own right as the mind is the biggest source of human emotion out there.

He ran around the side, making sure to keep far from the enemy while he held Soul Edge at the ready. Th massive sword narrowed its single eyeball towards Mathayus with a deadly glare, the rage overflowing from within its very being. Nico also felt some small amount of bloodlust aimed towards Clarent as well, but he didn't focus on that one. 'Biko, Soul Edge's ranged abilities should work here, right?' He thought to his Demon Persona.

 **'Indeed they should. From what I can tell, Emiya's spell has a limited range, and those curses he is spouting off like a fangirl ranting about her** **favorite** **male character in a videogame seem to impact a certain area as well. ****If we use Soul Edge's ranged forms, we should have a significant advantage over our enemy.'**

That was all he needed to hear, before mentally commanding Soul Edge to do his will. The sword rattled in his grip and a surge of acceptance entered his being from his link to the Devil Arm, before Soul Edge deformed itself into a mass-less state that reformed into its Bow form. For those who don't know, Soul Edge's bow form is of a traditional Longbow, but with demonic flesh for the base, an entrails-like string, and multiple eyes. Stopping all motion, Nico stood tall and drew the string back, Soul Edge swiftly forming an Arrow from its fleshy frame that Nico coated in his weaker Hellfire for good measure. Taking his hand off the string, Nico let loose the Harpoon shaped Arrow and watched it fly true towards its target.

When he noticed it coming, Mathayus frowned under his breath, still weary from those onslaught of Curses. He felt their effects draining quickly though, his insanity empowering his mental strength so that hey don't remain active for long, however the rate that Arrow flew true meant that he wouldn't be able to block it in time. "Fool." Even so, he still felt confident that the flaming arrow wouldn't be able to do anything to him. That boy couldn't damage him once, and yet Mathayus had been able to break his arm in one strike. "Such a primitive weapon won't-"

Unfortunately for him, Mathayus was once again proven wrong the instant the Arrow made contact with his body. To be more specific, his non-weapon arm''s shoulder. His eyes widened as searing pain exploded from the point of impact, the arrow tearing right through the Shoulder area and destroying it, the Hellfire consuming his entire arm along the way. "What?!"

"Soul Edge isn't known as my strongest Devil Arm for nothing, you know!" Nico proclaimed, a dark gleam in his eye behind his Helmet while his Armour clinked from slight movements. "The damage these arrows do normally, is rivaling to the shell of a Tank's main gun. When they are released however, they show their true fangs. The longer the distance between the arrow and target, the stronger the Arrows become as the energies inside them accumulate, leading to them being potentially able to level entire buildings or armies from a safe distance." he stated. "Here, have a few MORE!"

In that instant, Nico unloaded a whole volley of Arrows, each coated with Hellfire till they looked like the volley of bullets from a Gatling Gun. Mathayus quickly got his wits together and became a blur, avoiding the Arrows by a hair lest he let his body suffer the same fate that befell his arm. Every time one of the Arrows nearly grazed him, he felt the fierce heat of the flames that coated them, a heat that could only come from a warrior whose resolve was equal to that of a firestorm. It was like he was looking at the personification of an Infernal deity itself, the raw heat, malice and wrathful intent that he could sense from those flames was enormous.

'Yet another worthy foe...'

At first, he had expected these two to be pure weaklings, nothing even worthy of its time. Its power dwarfed theirs by a wide margin, and they had been unable to fight at full capacity due to fighting him in that detestable form he had been in before. That form of which he had no sanity or control over himself. However, even weakened these two boys managed to cut them.

As such, these two would have to be defeated with the prejudice of a true warrior.

Meanwhile, Castiel eyed the Bow Nico wielded, and furrowed his brows when a realization came to him. "You've been holding out on me." he stated dully. Although he did feel like a hypocrite since he had done the same thing. It looked like they both had powers in their arsenal that they had yet to share, that was what he thought while quickly reinforcing his onslaught, mixing in his Curses as well so that the enemy had a harder time dodging their combined offensive.

"Right back at you." was what Nico countered with before resuming his offensive, releasing 2 Rinkaku Tentacles which were manipulated to be small yet still big enough to pick up Ebony and Ivory to operate them. They added the two pistols into the mix of projectiles to the mix, making his assault ever the harder to avoid for the mask-wearing being.

As a result, the Scorpion King found himself hard pressed to defend against two attacks from different angles. One felt much more demonic, sinister and twisted than the other, while that other felt like a mix of holy and ravenous, like two opposing forces that should not be able to co-exist yet they do at the same time, These two forces constantly pelted away on him, pounding at his defenses both his sword and his iron skin. His sword remained strong due to it being bound to his very being, but his Iron Skin slowly started folding under the pressure, the constant attacks steadily breaking it into pieces. Any longer, and they would soon be able to break through it completely to his flesh just like those attacks before had done.

"ENOUGH!"

Eventually, Mathayus had enough, and with a mighty war cry he unleashed a large energy wave from his body that blew everything back, forcing Nico and Castiel to employ defensive actions. Castiel summoned forth a barrier in front of him, enhanced with reinforcement to withstand the debris while Nico formed a wall of Hellfire in front of him to burn the debris before it could even get close. Soul Edge reformed into its default form, too, ready to be used against their opponent.

By the time the wave ended, both boys lowered their defenses, allowing them to see how tattered and damaged their opponent was. Not only did he lack an arm, but he had scratches and scorch marks all over its body. Some were deep enough to draw blood, while some scorch marks looked like a mix of black and a horrible purple. Still though, the masculine monster remained resolute, defiance dancing in his eyes as he looked down at his blade.

"I grow weary of these petty tricks." Mathayus snarled, before looking up, raising and holding his sword in an offensive stance. "It is clear to me that your blades are capable of cutting me, thus I shall see you both as warriors of which I must defeat. Therefore, it is time that we settle this with nothing but our blades. Show me the strength of your resolve, warriors. But before you do, I will have your names."

"Castiel Emiya."

"...Nico."

Both boys said their name, Castiel first then Nico who followed after reluctantly. Both boys now stood side by side (Nico having teleported to said side by Warping) and were holding their weapons at the ready. Soul Edge, Clarent and Hruting thrummed with power, the first one amplifying itself with its own bloodlust via PREDATOR. Its power filled the air around it, forming a thick miasma that crackled darkly with electricity over the weapon. The feelings of impending doom radiated from the bloodthirsty blade, which looked eager to sink itself into the flesh of its prey, namely Mathayus.

Meanwhile, the holy Clarent and bloodlust-fueled Hruting radiated their own auras, both giving off feelings of royalty and felt like two sides of the same coin, yin and yang, that type of thing yet co-existing through the body of their wielder. Their auras generated feelings of awe, charisma, violence, death and bloodlust all mixed into one grayish package. It was like looking at two sworn enemies, enemies who followed the opposing paths to each other, then decide to team up against the threat of a third party.

All the while, their wielders kept stern gazes at their opponent (Nico's being hidden by is Armour's helmet). Castiel quickly deployed his Golden Foundation Armour, completing the look that they unknowingly were presenting.

Two knight-like figures stood before Mathayus. One looked like he was clearly from royalty with the ferocity of an animal, a mix of elegance and brutality. The golden shine of his Armour glimmered menacingly, yet with an air of leadership and charisma that only a King could possess. It was like looking at someone capable of being the pillar that supported an entire people, a pillar that would be a natural born leader, someone to look up to, someone to rely on when the going got tough... which was mos of the time.

The other, a complete contrast to this holy royal knight: instead of one who projected both royalty and brutality, this Knight looked like one who had came from the battlefields of the infernal hell after conquering countless territories, surviving countless battles against creatures that may could only speak of. Creatures only few could have the privilege of boasting they could defeat. Even then however, this Knight f hell, this Demon, it had slain many in its path of carnage, leaving nothing but blood and gore in his path. Now, this Dark, Devilish Knight from the infernal levels of hell itself, faced off against Mathayus, ready to duke it out with nothing but pure swordsmanship.

Yet, neither realized it, but in Mathayus' eyes, the being noticed that there was a... similarity about them. Something that he did not feel the need to comment as it was not related to the battle that would follow.

With three war cries breaking through their helmets/half Mask, the three charged at each other, starting the final battle.

* * *

The first strike went to Castiel, who moved faster thanks to his Wings. He jumped into a spinning disk slash assault, slashing at his opponent while aiming for vital areas. Each one got blocked, parried or missed however, the ones from Hruting always being parried while Clarent either got blocked or missed thanks to the black sword's auto-aim ability. After one such slash, Castiel twisted into a high curve kick to the side of Mathayus' head, but the being just stepped back to dodge it and followed up with a slash to his face.

That one got blocked by Nico, who planted Soul Edge in the way while Castiel jumped backwards just in time, circling around while Nico traded a few blows with his large blade. Soul Edge seemed to fare much better than his other weapons did, it seemed as it would strike with enough force to resist the overwhelming power of Mathayus' blade. By the fifth strike, Nico slid side ways to allow Castiel to jump back into the brawl, swinging at Mathayus' back. However, its long Scorpion Tail blocked his swing before tossing Castiel back.

Sliding to a halt, Castiel looked up to see Mathayus about to make a reverse swing that would have sliced his head off if his Armour wasn't there. Quickly raising Hruting, he blocked the strike before swinging Clarent at his exposed side, only for the being to vanish out of thin air. His eyes quickly widened, searching for any sign of their enemy. Instincts warned him to look up, and he did, just to see the approaching Pincer-shape blade coming down on him with enough force to make a jetliner bend into a V shape.

Fortunately, Castiel rolled out of the way in time, letting the blade pass harmlessly into the ground and creating a resounding shockwave. He dug his wings into the ground upon landing, raising one to block another swing to his chest before Castiel unloaded a snap kick on his enemy's jaw, knocking him back. Using the power amplifying ability Clarent had, the young Heir dashed forth and slammed both blades into his enemy who raised his sword to block. This resulted in the Scorpion King being sent flying across the room.

A red flash appeared just outside his Peripheral vision, making Mathayus look backwards to see Nico having Warped behind him and revers swung Soul Edge upwards. Twisting his body allowed Mathayus to barely block it in time, but he got sent flying into the air as a result. Though, his strike did leave Mathayus disoriented thanks to Soul Edge's own magnified power. He got sent crashing through the roof, but thanks to the curse Castiel placed on him, Mathayus reappeared in a flash of purple in the same spot that he got those chains at.

At that moment, he realized something about these two which made his eyes narrow at them.

'These two...'

Also in that moment, both Nico and Castiel grunted, feeling something wash over them, then the feeling of something being lifted. Like their shoulders felt considerably lighter. Then, came a feeling of weightlessness, like gravity no longer had an effect on them.

"Uh, Nico?" Castiel questioned, arching a brow behind his helmet as a thought occurred to him. He soon began experimentally flapping his wings, and when he did he got the sensation that they were not as hindered as they have been the entire mission. "I'm thinking that we MAY have a bit more of the case of flyingness on our side..."

Nico, whom had felt the same as his companion, quickly accessed his Demonic Powers and activated DDD, transforming into Crimson Soul. He hadn't tried it yet before because he feared what might happen if he did, like what restrictions would be imposed on him if he transformed. After all, his Recon Drone hadn't been able to even hover, so he figured some restrictions would have been applied in a similar manner to his DPU Form. However, if this weightlessness indicated what he and Castiel thought it did, then...

Both boys made mighty leaps, spreading their wings and flapping them for hovering purposes. The result: their flight capabilities kicked in as they flew up towards the Hole Mathayus made when he got sent flying by Soul Edge.

"Looks like our powers of flight have been restored! The limitation's been lifted!" Castiel realized, flaring his wings in a grandiose manner. In all honesty, if his Armour wasn't on, then Castiel's large grin would be clearly visible on his face. He may not have had them for long, but Castiel LOVED his wings. Flight and flying enemies in general always gave him a hard time in the past. It was why really hated those who had wings and used them unfairly against him and any of those under him. Now that he had his OWN wings that would no longer be an issue.

Now however, he just wanted to finish this so he could practice some flying skills. He hadn;t had the chance to do this for a while, now and he wanted to change that.

While he floated alongside his companion, Crimson Soul eyed their opponent, humming in thought. This battle had gone ion way longer than necessary, and it would be too tedious to continue this the way that they have. Simple is better in some situations, but according to his senses, he could sense that this guy wanted to end this battle fast. Therefore he will likely try something large to get them both at the same time. For a moment, the warrior within him cried out in outrage at this, feeling like he was being insulted, but Crimson Soul didn't feel any resentment towards Mathayus for this. Simply due to the fact that he agreed. The time to end this battle had come, it had dragged on for long enough.

Glancing over to Castiel and looking into his eyes through his helmet (though not his emotions as his human self had experience on what that was a bad idea), he saw that the Heir had a similar thought process.

"Emiya." Crimson Soul stated as Soul Edge crackled with energy. He got into a battle stance and activated EVERY power amplifying ability he possessed, including the items he had on him at the moment, before infusing them all into Soul Edge. This made the Devil Arm roar with power, power which released trails of energy across the skies around them. "This fight has gone on long enough. It is time that we end this farce once and for all."

Biko, watching everything through the main aspect's senses,then noticed something, something none of the three had noticed. Interestingly enough,he saw how the golden Scepter that Crimson Soul's human self had picked up, had flew up after them this whole time, though it went unnoticed by the trio, and infused itself with Soul Edge. Why that was, Biko didn't know, but he guessed that it would only be revealed when the last blow landed.

The Heir to the Tower nodded in response, agreeing with his companion. "You bet. Lets finish this, I wanna get outta this heat already. Its killing my tan." he remarked, slight mirth in his tone as he prepared for a strike of his own. He discarded Hruting for this one, putting both hands on Clarent as he began powering up. Golden energy erupted from the blade, roaring from it as it spread across the air like the demonic energies of Soul Edge.

This did not go unnoticed by the Scorpion King, whom raised a brow in interest as he held his blade at the ready. "Hmmm... I see. So you two intend to put everything you have into a single strike. Very well then..." In that instant, crimson energy rolled off the masculine being in waves, sending rippling air waves from his position that collided with the waves Castiel and Crimson Soul were releasing. Behind him, the silhouette of a human Skull formed, its wide eyes hollow sockets while its maw opened and let out a fierce roar. "Allow me to do the same."

"WITH PLEASURE!"

Both boys reared their weapons back, their energies getting increasingly volatile. It was almost like their swords were competing against each other to see which one was the most dangerous. Neither wielder paid much attention to the behavior of their swords however, focusing their gazes solely on their opponent who responded in kind. For a moment, all was tense and silent, as if the forest itself was watching them eagerly awaiting the final conclusion to their duel. It was like watching 3 colossal titans about to duke it out to the death. The level of scale to this battle felt as such to anything or anyone watching.

Finally, they were on each other in a second, swinging their blades at one another.

The moment those blades touched, they were engulfed in a bright light, making it impossible to see what would happen next.

* * *

Several moments later, both boys fell to the ground as smoking bodies, landing right before the entrance tot he pyramid and rolling to stop. Both boys had reverted to their regular states, Nico without his DPU Form, Armour, Mask and Devil Arms and Castiel without his wings, Armour and Clarent..

"Ugh..." the redhead teen mused, sitting up while groaning, feeling his regeneration quickly repairing what damage was dealt to his body. Putting his gloved hand on his head, Nico cleared the cobwebs from his brain. "Well, that wasn't unexpected, but still a whole lot better than being dead..." he muttered under his breath before he looked up. His eyes widened when he saw what he did.

On the ground though, Castiel groaned as he too started getting up, casting healing blessings on himself. He didn't have the time to activate **Siegfried** during the collision, so the damage he got dealt with was more than what he had expected. Good thing that he had eaten that herb as well as bathed in that pool that increased their physical endurance, otherwise he and Nico would have likely bit the dust from the resulting energy eruption.

Glancing over to the red haired male, Castiel noticed him looking upwards and followed his gaze, finding himself looking upon the massive cloud of smoke rising through the air from their collision. His eyes slightly widened at the sight, his mouth becoming 'O' shaped as he witnessed it. "Well... at last that confirms it." he stated, drawing Nico's attention.

"Confirms what?"

"That we kicked that guy's ass."

To further prove the Heir's words, Nico and Castiel noticed a message screen, similar to those one would see on a chat group, appear in front of them. They both had the same message inscribed on them, in big capital letters for them to read as clear as day:

MISSION COMPLETE

POINTS - c: 200 - N: 12000

"Huh?! What is this bullshit?! Why the hell do you have way more points?! that's totally hax!" Castiel exclaimed when he read that part. Irritation and anger roared within his chest at this 'injustice', as in his eyes he had done a whole lot more than what would be worth this amount of points. He should have gained more than what he did, that was what he thought.

Nico hummed in thought, frowning as while he felt happy about the large points for him, he still felt similar to how Castiel was feeling. Though that didn't mean that his ranting didn't annoy him, quite the opposite actually. He just forced himself to think of a possible solution to this problem. In the end, Nico felt that he wouldn't have been able to get as far as he did without Castiel's help, so it felt like he was stealing unfairly from the guy. After a moment of pondering, an idea came to him and Nico turned to the frustrated Heir. "Perhaps its because I killed considerably more enemies than you, even if you dealt with more of the Bounded Fields than I. If we consider this as a game, RPG or hack'n'slash, then I have accumulated more kills than you by a wide margin, therefore I gain more points." he explained.

Castiel made to yell some more, but calmed himself down with forced breathing exercises taught to him when he was a kid, something that his teachers said would help him deal with stressful situations like in politics or with incompetence. The more he thought about it, the more that he began to see the logic behind Nico's assessment. This whole mission was filled with tons of game vibes to him, and hell Zelretch's explanation carried similar vibes to it. That way, seeing as how Nico had killed plenty more than him made him having more points than him made sense, as much as he loathed to admit it. He also felt a little bad at his ranting just now, it was not behavior that was befitting the Heir to the Tower that he was. Fortunately, none of his teachers were around to see this and they never would know.

He'll take this secret to the grave if he had to.

"Still, this does not sit well with me." Nico continued, scowling which drew the Heir's attention. "It does not feel right to take so many points for myself when most of the more important work was done by yourself. I would not have gotten this far if it weren't for your efforts in breaking the Bounded Fields." He admitted, though he didn't like it. Immortality or not, Nico didn't want to experience what it would be like as a disembodied soul waiting to reform. If Castiel's words were to be believed, and he didn't doubt them since he had more experience with them than him, then he would have likely had to experience that pain himself. "Therefore... how about this? Remember that deal we made in the desert? The deal with the information you gave me in exchange for 30% of the catch? How about we revisit that, and say that instead of 30% of the catch, you receive 50% of it, in addition my total points as well. That way you captain a significant reward from something like this."

Much to Nico's surprise however, Castiel shook his head before responding. "No need, that wouldn't be fair to you. You earned those points so keep them, we'll just keep to the established terms before. in any case, we should be able to get back for the next trial, so lets go."

* * *

After they confirmed the deal and exchanged the rewards (a tedious affair indeed) Nico and Castiel found themselves back in the same area they first sparred in. They should call it a training area for the time being, maybe even take time to rest in between trials here, but that would be food for thought later. Looking around, they soon found Zelretch standing nearby, looking upon the two with his ever present grandfatherly grin on his face.

"Not bad, not bad you two." He stated, clapping his hands while walking up to them. "You cleared your first trial. A bit later than I had expected, but It seems that would be partially thanks to your little break in that mini desert I built in." He remarked, before giving a sly look to Nico. Said teen raised a brow, doing his utmost to remain the blissfully ignorant person in that matter. He knew what that look meant, but he felt no remorse for 'executing his vengeance' on Castiel's face with his Kagune.

It WAS payback for those lady comments after all.

Castiel pretended not to notice this, while he responded to Zelretch's words. "Well, it was a trip, but nothing we couldn't handle. Say, is it alright if I do something before we continue?" he asked, getting a knowing nod from his Godfather who looked like he knew what Castiel wanted to do before he did. Odds were, that was the truth since the guy DID have some experience under his belt.

Pulling out the Stones he got from those Bounded Fields within he Scorpion King's tomb, the Heir summoned his two Cosmoems. "Hey guys, guess who?" he exclaimed happily, the familiars squealing in joy as they hugged their master in affection. He hugged them back, unable to keep the grin off his face. He had missed all his familiars, and intended to let them know he was ok as soon as he could.

But for now, it was time for them to finish their evolution. Pulling out the Stones, Castiel held them before the two familiars, his smile becoming smaller and more affectionate if it were possible. "Alright guys, I just found something that'll help you two grow big and strong. Here." he said, holding them out before the Cosmoems.

Said Familiars beamed at him, before they pressed their heads against the stones, and became engulfed in bright light. This made Castiel, Nico and Zelretch place one hand over their eyes to shield them from the intensity that the light produced. By the time that the light died down, two beings now stood before the Heir to the Tohsaka Tower.

One of them was a large, white lion. It had a blunt muzzle with a blue-gray nose and pale blue eyes. The top half of its face is a deep blue area that shows a constantly changing starscape. Four yellow spikes framed its head like a crown and two more pairs of spikes adorn either side of its lower jaw, and each spike separates large tufts of the creature's mane. Solid ridges—red nearest the head and yellow farther away—poke out of each tuft along the middle, except on the tufts on its cheeks and chin, with the topmost part wrapping around the tip of the tuft. Overall, its mane creates the impression of a stylized sun. Around each leg is a dark orange band, and there is a black spot on each foot. It has three black toes on each foot with long yellow claws. At the tip of its tail is a large black spot with a thin yellow rim. If someone who had a powerful enough sensing ability tried to track him they would sense this mighty beast as if it was the sun itself as all its light was like the scorching and vibrant light of the sun, alight more fitting for pure combat.

As for the other, it took the form of a large skeletal, legless bat. It had a short snout, dark pink eyes with white centres, and a deep blue area on its upper head that shows a constantly changing starscape. A rigid, raised hood wraps around its head in a crescent shape and drapes around its neck as well. The outside of the hood is yellow, while the inner part that curves around its head was a pattern of deep blue and white streaks. Its torso resembled a rib-cage with a slightly curved spike on each shoulder and three spikes extending from the bottom toward its tail. Its massive wings resembled a bat's wings with the skeleton exposed, except that they have a total of seven "finger bones": four running through each wing, one running along the edge to the outermost tip, and two pointing upwards that may act as claws that are more functional. The four "bones" through the wings were only visible in segments. The skin of the wings is an iridescent deep blue, and a light blue light source appears to glow from behind its rib-cage. A large, pale yellow crescent connects the outermost tip of each wing to the next two inner tips, and the remaining two innermost tips are adorned by yellow, four-pointed stars. The bottom of its tail is also lined by a yellow crescent, with a ridge running up the middle of the tail towards the rib-cage. The light it had was of similar and equal scale to its brother but the nature was that of the moonlight, a gentle but all-encompassing light that could reach everywhere and was much more mysterious but also accepting of change, a light more fit for healing and more mysterious uses instead of head-on confrontations.

"Solgaleo!"

"Lunala!"

Both creatures cried out their names to the heavens, victory and joy in their roars. The sight nearly brought tears into Castiel's eyes as he watched it. The sight of his beloved Familiars finally finishing their evolution definitely felt like a tearjerker to him, and he had to admit that they looked as awesome as all hell. He could only imagine what they could do out in the field, something he would love to find out. "You guys, I'm so freaking proud of you two right now you have no idea!" he exclaimed joyfully, rushing forth and hugging the two. Both familiars beamed happily at the affection displayed by their master and nuzzled him back, showing their appreciation for the gesture. At this moment the three were simply happy that they wouldn't need to worry for each other as much, Castiel knew that the two have grown immenselly strong and already were close to reaching Low Super-Class, the only thing stopping them was that they still needed time to stabilise their energy before reaching that level and even further considering that the Solgaleo and Lunala species were species that naturally reached mid to high Leader-class when fully matured, while the two in question were happy that they would now be able to properly support their master/elder brother/surrogate-father (he had taken care of them since they were eggs, what else to expect?). If someone were to ask if Castiel would say that this trip here was worth it based exclusively in what they managed to obtain already, the perfect evolution of his two familiars was something that Castiel could only laugh in happiness for. The two were strong now, the connection between them and Castiel also intensified and he could sense the power of the sun and moon enter his body and strengthening his light magic, starting to change it fundamentally to unite the light of the sun, moon, and star to reach a more balanced and perfect level. Not that this even registered for Castiel, his familiars, his family in all but blood, was fine and this was all that mattered to him.

While Nico and Zelretch watched the moment, the former looked to the side, feeling a pang of pain in his chest. Not the physical kind, but the emotional kind as the moment reminded him of the people that he had come to care for through their adventures. The people whom had accepted him for who and what he was. They must be worried sick, wondering where the hell he was. Nico had planned to spend some time with them after the whole Mundus incident, and there was a lot they needed to do before they moved to the next landmass, Lowee. So much had happened between them, that it felt like a crime to be away from them for so long.

Deciding to try and focus on something else instead of his companions back in the Devildimension, Nico summoned his OWN in-game reward from that place, the Scepter. Aside for the distraction part, Nico wanted to see if this Scepter had anything worthwhile to know about it, and also if it had anything to do with why that, now that he had a chance to look at his arms, the Bracelet was not there. However, the moment that he did, the teen got the shock of his life when he found something ELSE appearing in a golden flash in front of him, similar to his Devil Arms.

"What the...?" the teen muttered, looking at the weapon in his right hand with a mix of awe, shock, and surprise. Instead of a Scepter, Nico held what looked like a golden SCYTHE. The blade was long and curved, coming off the tip of the snaith at its heel. The snaith itself looks to be made out of golden, and it has two grips protruding from opposite ends that resembled long curving hooks. Its pommel looked reminiscent of the Scepter's main body, golden with intricate designs. Even while he had so many questions floating about in his head regarding this, Nico couldn't help but find this weapon considerably more fitting for him than a Scepter would. He WAS known by the nickname 'Black Reaper' after all.

"Well, looks like my guess paid off."

Looking to Zelretch, whom had been the one to break his concentration, Nico arched a brow at him, curiosity in his eyes on what he meant by that. "What are you talking about?" he questioned, experimentally twirling the Scythe in complex arcs, flips, twists, lunges etc like a dance, while making use of the external grips to perform wheel-like spins. He had to admit, this thing felt pretty good to wield, just like how Harvester did. Eventually, he finished his 'initiation' with the Scythe and tethered it to his back with Demonic Power.

"You see, this item I have been trying to make for a while now, but I never got all the kinks for it. I had to split it into 3 parts, the soul, the grip, and the shaft, Then store them in the Pyramid until I could find a way to complete the weapon. Then, I stumbled on your world after one of my experiments with time went awry, and learned of Devil Arms. Quite the battle tools if I do say so myself..." he explained, looking at Nico knowingly. The teen didn't like the way he looked at him though but made no move to show his displeasure. After all, this guy could do whatever the hell he wanted with the amount of power at his disposal.

Though, Nico DID finally get confirmation that there was another reason as to why Zelretch brought him here.

Fortunately he didn't keep that look forever, choosing to continue the explanation. "My time there, along with my friendship with Sparda, taught me that this weapon would be best operational if it had sentience and intelligence, so I went back, developed a prototype device called a 'Hogyoku', and inserted it into the soul. Unfortunately it was only a prototype not the real thing, so while the completed being would have knowledge of the techniques it held inside, it wouldn't be able to perform them. Even so, the soul still had the power to control the Army of that old codger Anubis, something that, when this Scythe was made, has been inherited along with some of those abilities."

Nico frowned as he took the Scythe from his back, and held it by its shaft in front of him, gazing down at the weapon with contemplating eyes. This information sounded quite interesting, and it made him feel like he was with the WDD back home learning about how different technologies worked. However, there was still more truth to know, hence why he questioned Zelretch again. "Interesting... I won't ask how you created these components, but may I ask how this weapon came into being?"

"Simple, you." the elderly man replied. "You see, since you collected the three components: the Bracelet, the Scepter, and Mathayus' Soul when you killed him with the Scepter infused into your weapon..." Nico made to object to that when he got a confirmation from Biko, who told him about what he noticed during the final battle. Thus, he shut his mouth and let the elderly man continue, "A bonus was triggered: These components fused together in a way that I have been failing to replicate for ages. During the process, it bonded to your own Soul like those bratty Devil Arms you have, allowing it to be used by you and you alone. Its also got the ability to summon forth and control the Army of Anubis thanks to having the Soul of Mathayus inside it, along with a few abilities from the Hyogyoku."

The man then pointed his index finger at it, and a special sealing array formed over the Scythe, much to Nico's surprise as he looked towards the man. "Don't worry, I'm not destroying the Scythe, I wouldn't be able to anyways thanks to it being too integrated into your Soul. If I did, it'd damage you severely and I don't want that. Instead I'm sealing the Army of Anubis so that you can't summon them until AFTER you complete the trials. That army has a LARGE potential within it, and I don't want to have to clean up after them. Those doggies love to shit over everything, I swear..." in the end, the man mumbled that last part to himself as if he had a personal experience with them or something. Something that Nico didn't doubt honestly.

 **'I have looked it over myself, Nico. It appears that while this weapon is indeed sentient, it is not the same as a Devil Arm. Therefore, this weapon will not try to take you should you show any weakness, nor will it drain your energy. Should another incident like the Berserker Mode happen again, it will not need to be sealed away like the other Devil Arms.'**

"... So basically, this guy's got a super-weapon you've been making for a while bonded to his Soul that has the power to summon a literal army of death? Sheesh, you make some weird things, Uncle."

Looking to the side, both men saw Castiel walking up to them, his two Familiars right behind him while his hands remained at his sides. He looked at the new Scythe with a low whistle escaping his lips. "You know that thing's name, at least? A weapon like that has to have a good sounding name." he questioned, Nico and Zelretch drawing their gaze back to it.

"Osiris." Nico stated, bluntly. For a moment he seemed surprised, but then disregarded said emotion. Knowing the name of a weapon instantly after touching it didn't seem so shocking anymore, since he had so many other weapons now.

Zelretch then clapped his hands, getting the attention of the two boys again. "Whelp, this has been a fun little trip, but I must be off. the second trial starts a couple hours from now, so use this time wisely. Access the catalog, train with your buddies, talk, do what you feel is necessary. I'm off to binge watch some One Piece episodes while chewing bubble gum." he spoke, before vanishing out of existence like he normally did...

It was Zelretch, what do you expect?


	92. cross-over chap 7

**Rewards and New Mission**

Now that they had gotten Nico's Osiris out of the way, it was time that they give Castiel his own rewards. Zelretch wouldn't be here to witness this however, having left them already to do his own thing. Fine by them, after all they had a lot of time on their hands if what their instincts told them was any accurate, so might as well make the most out of it.

And both boys had their own means of doing so.

On one side, the Spec Ops Agent showed little reaction to the lack of an elderly man in their area. He didn't really mind all that much since he had his new weapon, it was more than enough for a reward from this mission. It rivaled some of the rewards he would receive from his Quests back home aside from Credit sums. A weapon like this, feeling so similar to a Devil Arm yet not at the same time, it would be an ideal substitute for Harvester considering how it would be going through somewhat of a metamorphosis.

Turning to his companion, Nico hummed in thought. His eyes ran across the sight of Castiel's two new familiars, taking in their elegance and beauty. Even Nico had to admit that he was a little impressed with them, they seemed so much stronger than they were before. In fact, while he wasn't aware of their biology, the short time that he had seen them in their previous states made Nico aware that they were in an incomplete state. Not only that, but his senses told him that these two beings had ma much greater power boost compared to before, though he had little idea on what they were like.

Nevertheless, seeing them gave him a bit of an idea to do with his OWN companion, his own little creation from his Demonic Powers. Whether or not it would be related to him due to the nature of its origins would be debatable, though. Still, this did pose some ideas for Nico to increase its powers, which were already strong enough to begin with.

In the past, Nico would have focused on increasing his OWN powers so that he could fight the battles that nobody else could. It had worked for him so far, and he had been able to achieve much on his own, with little to no help from other people. it didn't help that there were few in his experience who were that competent enough to stand by him, those few slowly increasing though. However, if anything about recent events taught him a lesson, it would be that he wasn't the only one needing to get stronger, there was his companions as well. Not only his companions back in Gamindustri, but his sort of familiar as well. No longer could he afford to be the only one who needed to get stronger, he had to upgrade the rest of his companions as well.

'Hey, Biko, do you think it might be possible for us to find something that could help Urthemiel out in this place?'

 **'I do not see why that would not be the case. According to this man;s words, as vague as they were, this place is full of different treasures, treasures connected to his countless exploits in alternate dimensions. This would mean that there would likely be something of use to our Archdemon, Urthemiel.'**

Wasn't that the truth, the male mused to himself. The fact that there were other worlds had already even made known to him by the time he first met with this guy, who MAGES. said was her master, hadn't prepared him for the possibility of alternate dimensions. It had only been through all this crazy demonic shit that he hadn't lost himself to his urge to squeal like a fangirl at the possibilities this could provide... as well as his discipline training from his mother.

Meanwhile, Castiel had been focusing on petting his new familiars, a broad smile on his lips. He couldn't say with words how happy he was that he had these guys now, how much he would LOVE to see them in action. Not only did they look cool as all hell, but they also felt immensely powerful, way more so than most familiars. They WERE meant to be legend-class familiars after all, and their powers could go up against the toughest opponents while holding their own.

He couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when they saw his new friends,especially a certain pervert. He may be changing his ways somewhat, but Castiel would regard him as a pervert till the end of time. As long as he kept that side of him reined in though, he would try not to be a dick about it. After all, he was only an asshole to those who either annoy him, were his enemies, or he held no respect for whatsoever.

Not to mention, all this felt like therapy for him considering how much stress he had been under since coming here. Much of it had already been worked out of his system, but the core problem still remained. Nevertheless, he had a couple weeks to ponder that, so he wouldn't be in a hurry to solve those problems. He could think about them some other time.

Even so though, his mind STILL worked a million miles a minute, thoughts and plans racing through it like racers on a course competing for a championship, on what this could mean for future missions. As well as how he could protect his comrades and those under him in the future once he returned home. He would have to look into how he could use their powers, see what they were first. Whether or not they had gained new ones or enhanced their old ones.

Also, there were their special traits, traits that unlocked themselves when certain conditions were met. That familiar catcher guy (he didn't remember his name) once called them special abilities, which Castiel disagreed with. A LOT of powers could be classed that way, so it would be redundant to call these specific traits such. Therefore, special traits would be what the Heir would go with.

Just then, he caught sight of Nico's pondering, but before he could speak, a notification appeared in front of him. 'Once a gamer, always a gamer, eh uncle?' he couldn't help but think while his lips twitched upward slightly. 'Hmmm... it says here I can choose a reward for completing the first trial. I can chose anything i'd like, huh? Well then, I think I have just the thing...' he thought to himself, before opening his mouth. "I'd like a Ying Yang Pendant."

As Castiel said that a pendant appeared in his hands, it was rather dull and old, there was not a single trace of anything special about it whatsoever to anyone looking at it without extreme focus. However, Castiel was not just anyone.

He was someone who had secretly studied thousands of books from all sources including some that were originally from Zelretch's personal collection, anything that could be used to obtain strength or that could work to help train was something he had learned. So, when he held the pendant the smile on his face was as hungry and extreme as a smile could be, something that shocked Nico who never expected the 'grumpy' Castiel to be able to show such a smile.

As Castiel held the pendant with one hand he cut the skin of his free hand before dropping some of his blood into the pendant. The instant the blood touched the stone, it was absorbed and a chain reaction started as blood and energy from Castiel started being drained at extreme speeds. A glow surged forth like a ship sailing through the ocean from within the pendant. A purple glow appeared on the pendant as Castiel's body was covered on an equal glow. The light covering him was intensifying quickly and before long he looked like a purple sun as he stood there before the glow vanished just as Castiel did.

'What the hell?!' Nico thought to himself from his position in the training ground. During that light show, he had to cover his eyes with a single leather glove-clad hand, so he didn't get blinded from that intense purple light. Whilst that happened, the redhead, who had experienced teleportation and other such things before, suddenly felt changes in the air that he had found familiar. When he lowered his arm to see what had happened, Nico saw that Castiel had vanished off the face of this entire dimension. Obviously, the redhead remained baffled for a short time before his mind regained its ability to think. 'Did he just Teleport or something? Cause i'm PRETTY sure that this guy couldn't do that before!'

 **'Hmmm, interesting... it appears that pendant is the cause of this.'**

'The Pendant? Oh right, when Castiel dropped the blood in it, that's when the light show happened... you think that did something to him?'

 **'Most likely. If I were to guess, then I would say that the pendant acts like a key to an Inner-world of sorts. A key in which he has to put blood on it, like a blood sacrifice, to activate. Whatever place he has been taken to, I am unaware of the actual benefits he will gain from it, but I can imagine that they will be significant. Obviously, it won't be ANYTHING like an Inner World like the one we know of. If anything, it seems to me like a special place which the pendant brings him to that cant be accessed so easily. In the end, its similar to the Inner World, but not at the same time.'**

Now that he heard Biko's words, a light of understanding flashed by his eyes as Nico calmed down. For a moment, he had feared the worse for the blonde Heir, but hearing that had doused those worries to nothingness. Instead though, he began to think about what he had learned from Biko. Part of him felt a little unsettled about Castiel having access to something similar to his Inner World, but he dismissed it since it wasn't like he didn't have ANYTHING to compare it to. He was fine with his Inner World being what it was, so that guy could enjoy whatever it was that he had gained. He'll just stay here and reap the benefits he'd gained for himself.

* * *

Castiel's P.O.v.

As I opened my eyes a grim appeared on my face. If my calculations are correct this is the Fourth Layer of this place. The realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, a special space connected to the pendant I obtained. What makes this space extra special is that is decently big (right now it has around 66.000 meters of diameter), the density of energy in the air is the most suitable for me and being about 20 times heavier in amount than in the external world, and that could be used for many things like raising herbs and other such matters.

However, the most interesting part is time. The flow of time here is 100 times faster than on the outside world, and considering that I can spend around 4 hours here by each day it means that while normally I would sleep I can spend around two weeks and then some in here on an ideal place to train. Also, even when I am not here the time still flows 100 times faster in this place so any herb put here gets older 100 times faster, no more than that as the ambient is just too suitable for them to grow.

Looking to the side I see some trees already here, getting closer I see that they are three trees that produce some interesting fruits, Fruit of Vitality that increase lifespan for 50 years, Energy Enhancing Fruit that can increase the physical strength by about 300 kilos, and the Agility Enhancing Fruit that by consuming it the person grows 50% faster. Truly wondrous things. I, obviously, took one of the Agility Enhancing Fruit and ate it, instantly I felt a energy enter my body and I could feel something within me change a little, I am not sure yet but it likely worked.

Now, looking around I saw a giant plaque in the middle of the place. In it there was some writing from the hand of someone I know all too well.

' _This place is my extra dumpste... I mean another secret treasure of mine. Uhum, deffinetly not just somewhere that I threw things like roots and stuff like that because it was occupying too much space. Anyway, originally this place had some special trees and other things that I took away as their leaves and fruits were good to make food better, so as compensation for the 'flawed' product I left a gift on the pond._

 _Enjoy!_ '

As I finished reading the message I took a deep breath before looking over the pond. Inside there wa just water but in the middle, there was a separated island inside the pool, with a decisive heart I moved to the smaller pond and as I looked at it I could feel my eyes shining in pure excitement.

Inside there is a tree, it is a bodhi tree that is releasing a peaceful mood in this place, almost like if it is a sacred place. Just by being near this tree I can sense my mind relaxing and I feel like if I could sit under it to think I could grasp at all I have to learn much faster, I can also see some small fruits on the tree and I can already predict that this whole tree is special in ways I still don't understand.

With this my speed of learning will be even higher, I will be able to ponder and learn things even better.

Looking around I summoned my familiars who quickly moved to make this place their new homes, each went their ways as they relaxed on this great ambient. I also noticed that there are a few creatures around like a 1000 yers old Clam whose blood could be used on the creation of pills and there is also a 5,000 Year Old Golden Medicinal Turtle that has a similar effect. Finishing noticing all that I sat down beneath the tree and started thinking back to all the fighting I had before I met Nico, my fight against him, and also the trial. I tried to understand everything including the inner workings of the magic defenses protecting the trial grounds like the barriers that could stop us and other such matters.

As I sat there my mind cleared and calmed, it was the calmest I've been in probably weeks or perhaps a bit further. However, even this distraction left my mind as I immersed myself on my thoughts, I don't know how long I will stay here but I asked Eevee to come 'wake me up'in a day or so before going back to warn Nico that I will be staying here for longer. I would go there now but I just can't avoif the impulse of sitting down here now and learning more.

And with that I immersed myself in figuring out myself, the nature of my powers, runecraft, and even if I could take this star light I had from the 'partially stolen name of **Kokabiel** '. Power is power, this light could be used and I wanted to know how to use it better than a brutish method like the one I currently am using. There is a lot to learn and I want it all, I am a ganancious man after all even if I don't look much like it most of the time.

* * *

3° Person P.O.V.

About fifteen minutes later or 1 day on the realm

As Nico was ttalking with Biko, suddenly Castiel flashed into existence without a trace of sound or fluctuation of energy. It was like a moment there was nothing and the next there was Castiel.

"I guess you'll be training, then." the redhead stated, not really caring much about these events, since he'd seen way weirder stuff.

"Yup, since Uncle's leaving us to our own devices, I'll make the most out of it with this baby." The young Heir replied, before once again activating the Pendant and vanishing into space once more.

'Whelp, looks like he's gone.'

 **'We should focus on our training as well. We have things to refine after all.'**

On that, Nico nodded as he sat down in a cross legged position, closed his eyes, and entered his Inner World. He and Castiel would be this way for the duration of this interlude between missions.

Before starting the training, however, Castiel suddenly reappeared, and after a quick statement of "just forgot to do something", he decided to take a better look at the things that could be bought with just the points. This caught Nico's attention, just stopping him from finally entering his Inner World.

Something definitely caught his attention, if the contemplative expression on Castiel's face was anything to go by.

"Wow, this might be a good call." he said. Seeing the questioning look on the Agent's face, he elaborated. "It says here that we can buy info about the ext mission, to be more specific what is the general objective and special traits of the place. I will buy this." he said, losing a total of 500 points and receiving Intel in the form of a holographic screen in front of him, showing him what to expect.

And it did NOT look good.

"This will be a metal-based mission, we will receive a total of 30 soldiers each to lead inside a city that will be getting attacked. If the city is destroyed or if over half of the soldiers dies we will lose. And to make things worst the soldiers can refuse our orders if we can't captivate them enough and neither of us can use anything of metal." Castiel explains it, furrowing his brows in thought.

'That... That doesn't sound good, Biko.' The Spec Ops Agent thought worriedly to his Demon Persona. 'My Devil Arms are mostly made of metal anyways, and if that last mission was any indication, then even the slightest traces of metal will render those weapons unusable.' he added, already feeling the dissatisfaction coming from said weapons.

 **'Indeed, this does pose a threat to us, as our powers are highly influenced by our Devil Arms. However, this does not make us helpless, especially with how our Hellfire powers are progressing. Not only that, but the Red Rage Ring does not have an ounce of metal in it, but rather crystal. Not to mention even if it did have some metal in it, since it is part of you like Emiya's arm, it should pass the criteria anyways. So for now, our restrictions would limit us to our Hellfire Powers, Demon Skills and their normal variants. Not to mention we have our hand to hand combat skills.'**

'True... hey wait, how did you know that Emiya's arm has metal in it?'

 **'The life flow within it feels off compared to the rest of his arm. I tied not to look into it too much because with the level I went, I risk exposing myself to a lot of negative energy. You know the harmful effects that could cause, especially since this amount would have overwhelmed our mental resistance.'**

Those words made the redhead shudder, clutching a gloved hand tightly. However, the more he thought about it, the more that Nico noticed details that were omitted. "You say that we can;t use things with Metal in them, yes? Is there anything else about that condition? Like why this is, if there are areas where this condition doesn't apply? Are traps an exception? What are the condition's limits, specifications etc? Just seems too vague and generalized for a condition like that."

"Nope, doesn't say anything like that. Uncle probably wants us to discover that for ourselves." Castiel replied, checking the info again. He hid the slight bristle he felt coming on when Nico asked that, instead of what a leader would ask such as what their men would be equipped with. The guy didn't seem like a leader type, more like a soldier being forced into different roles. He'd seen that as well during the last mission, too, hence why he wasn't so sure about Nico being a leader being a good idea. "Well, I at least know what I will have to buy now." Castiel remarked seconds later, shrugging his shoulders before turning to the system in place and requesting a large amount of precious stones.

Not mystical stones, but Rubies, Saphires, Esmeralds, Diamonds and other such things.

Castiel was super excited seeing all those gems of incredible purity, his eyes were sparkling immensely and while carefully taking them he seemed to be one step away from drooling. He then proceeded to go inside his Pendant, ignoring the disgusted looks that Nico was giving him.

'Seriously? Jewelry?' the redhead questioned in his mind, frustration building within him at the choice of item that Castiel had bought in bulk like that. He didn't see the point of making requests for what seemed to be ordinary gems. Why the hell would he waste valuable points on something that obviously wasn't a weapon or anything like Spirit Bones or Satanic Treasures. Heck, he could feel his inner Ghoul growling in frustrated anger as well.

 **'Calm yourself, Nico. Remember what we have observed from Emiya so far. He is someone whom is from a different world than us, therefore he may have ideas up his sleeves that are different from ours. Therefore, it is wise to assume that someone like him, who carries himself as a capable leader, would know what they are doing.'**

Biko's words reverberated throughout his mind, and Nico calmed himself down. In the end, his Demon Persona was right, even if he could sense the hidden distaste with his negative emotion sensing. Castiel Emiya wasn't from Nico's world, therefore he would know things that he didn't. The proof came from that time in that desert in their previous mission. In that case, he had to do something he usually frowned upon, making business deals, to acquire important information on something that he had been doing for a long time, now.

'Goddamnit, I almost lost it there... I almost acted like those assholes I hate... thanks Biko, for steering me away from that.'

 **'It is of no problem, we are one in the same. We help each other, it is our way. On another unrelated note, Emiya's actions intrigue me. Perhaps we can use the system to gain something we could use to our advantage for our next mission.'**

That... actually sounded very interesting, Nico would not lie. He would admit that sounded like an interesting proposal, he would like to know what kinds of items he could get from something like this system, they wold have to be lower grade items compared to the rewards that they would receive/gather during the missions, but they could still hold other interesting uses.

Therefore, Nico went and accessed the system like Castiel just did, and while searching for anything interesting he came across an... interesting tome. Quickly buying it for 200 points, Nico sat back down, placed the book in his lap, opened it and began reading.

* * *

 _Two warriors stood on opposite sides, staring each other down with utmost conviction._

 _Both carried large swords on their backs, but there wasn't anything special about them at first sight. They didn't have any charms, enchantments, nothing. They looked like any normal two-handed swords... but was exactly what made them feel like the scariest thing in existence. It was BECAUSE they looked normal that it would be wise to treat them as anything BUT normal._

 _Normally when someone carried a sword, it is seen as unnatural and it attracts attention. Not something unexpected, since swords were signs of conflict, and very few liked conflict these days, preferring peace over war. However with these two, there was no such thing, it was so natural to them that it was like this should be the norm from the very start, this is just a small show of how close to the way of the sword both of them were._

 _The two men, clad in wicked-looking armour that looked to show a long, utter ferocious history of conflict due to the tears and wear on them, started talking about something, but what that was would remain a mystery, a mystery that would soon be lost to time._

 _In the end the one on the left slowly, almost painfully slowly, pulled his sword out The moment that he started this action, its effects started as the world itself seemed to change around him._

 _Scenes of carnage and violence passed the minds of all of those who dared look at the deceptively ordinary blade, and while moving it there was this… illusion of the sword getting a red hue of blood, it was like the blade and the user were covered in the blood of thousands of enemies. A devil-like person, an entity of pure slaughter. But, unlike what one might assume, there was not an ounce of evil on it, like there was not one evil thought around him even as he drenched the world and reality with blood of dozens of thousand._

 _The other also took out his sword, and everything around him was cut in many pieces by the light alone of the blade. As in, the light that gleamed so menacingly from it that it actually acted like it was a blade itself, tearing through everything in sight. A feeling of desolation, like he was the topmost God of the world and everyone else was below him from the start. Even the air was being cut around him, and THAT was because he wasn't even trying to cut anything right now. It is just his presence that made this a reality, as if nothing shall be left whole when facing his sword._

 _After they started at each other for some time more, they finally moved. They closed in on each other instantly, their first strikes at the ready. Both struck out with enough strength to eliminate entire armies with one swing of their mighty blades, and with such amazing speed that following the movements was nigh impossible. However, no matter how much they attacked the two remained equally balanced. Like two titans that matched each other in every shape or form._

 _After more than 10000 attacks, it seemed that the two men wanted to 'stop playing games' and took each other seriously. For they started going faster and faster, throwing more and more deadly strikes with illusions of thousands upon thousands of attacks raining down upon each other without mercy. This constant onslaught utterly wrecked their surroundings, yet neither noticed or cared. Both evolved as time passed, the swords of the two leaving after images and the space itself started to crack on the point of impact._

 _It was a fully different level of swordplay that was rarely ever seen, the terrain itself changed until the woods and mountains turned into flat wastelands._

 _But the two just kept fighting._

 _The duel undecided..._

* * *

'Holy...' Nico thought, eyes wide as he stared down, captivated by what he was reading. 'This... this could be uber useful in improving my sword skills.' He added on in awe. Even if he couldn't use his Devil Arms, Hellfire-based weaponry would be a suitable alternate, and if he learned some of the techniques shown here, then maybe he could boost the strength of his own techniques. Not only that, but skimming through the menu, he noticed some books on Sword training, as well as Halberd and Scythe manuals too, which meant that if he got them, he could increase his versatility with his Devil Arms even further.

With that course in mind, Nico spent up to 600 points in buying books with similar titles, storing them in his Void Storage for later reading. For a brief moment, Nico realized just how USEFUL this opportunity presented before him (albeit forcefully) became, before his mind got consumed by the desire to learn more about these warriors and their sword play. Swings which split oceans, cut through the skies and shattering mountains, the amount of skill he had seen in them defied the logic that Nico had been aware of until now, something which he DEFINITELY got blown away by.

Whilst he did his little shopping frenzy (wonder if this was how Compa and Neptune felt whenever they went out to get stuff and he'd have to manage their budgets so they didn't splurge), Nico soon came across something... particularly interesting.

"Huh?"

Blinking owlishly, the redhead's mind screeched to a halt when he saw the next book on the Menu screen, humming in thought as he stared at it. The item itself had the icon of a book, but when he looked at its title, it only had a '?' on it, with no description of its contents nor a preview of the object itself. Although, there WAS a note which said that this item would remain 'locked' if bought and would only be available after the second trial. 'Huh, I see... its similar to some weapons gained in videogames, predominantly RPGs where one needs to be a certain level to use it. I remember a Leanbox game about 4 characters surviving a Zombie Outbreak with similar mechanics, what was it called, dead something? Meh, whatever. Anyways, the price looks to be quite hefty for a single item, if i'm honest...' Nico thought, frowning when he noticed the price. 'What do you think, Biko?'

 **'I would say buy it. If its this guy, then although we haven't known him for long, I believe it is because of him that Emiya has the items that he does. This means that if he made this item act this way, then its likely it is very useful in some manner. If not for you, then perhaps we can use it in other means.'**

Biko stated his piece, so Nico decided to heed his words. In the end, the male bought the item, and some notifications appeared on his right Bracer's main Screen, telling him pretty much the same thing as the description had. Nico could only hope that he had made the right choice with this, cause he SO wanted to make sure to get great benefits from whatever treasures Zelretch had in store for him and Castiel.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the time being, Nico decided that he'd spent enough points, took the first sword manual from his Void Storage and began reading, immersing himself within the contents.

* * *

3 hours passed for the two boys, and each of them performed their own forms of training.

For Castiel, he trained more in hand to hand combat alongside his Familiars, all the while learning more about their new powers and how they could be used on the battlefield. This was due to them having joined the Heir to the Tower within the realm of the Violet Jade Immortal in an attempt to be with their master, something that warmed Castiel's heart the more he thought about. He let such feelings fill his mind, pushing away any thoughts of his troubles that awaited him back home while he trained to his heart's content. He trained in CQC due to the fact that they were going to a place which wouldn't allow them to use metal, so any combat capabilities that didn't involve such things would be absurdly useful here.

Not only did he train his CQC skills, but he also trained his magic abilities as well. His Curses likely wouldn't be as useful to them as they were before, given how that they would likely be fighting against something robotic and robots don't usually have souls to attack. Like he explained to Nico, his Curses were both a mind and soul attack, but if a being lacked both of those like a robot or a formless entity, then those things wouldn't do jack shit. Therefore, he focused on his Blessing and other Spells, since his Blessings could work on himself and possibly those that were under him (plus seeing as Clarent was made from metal he couldn't rely on its charisma, nor could he rely on Hruting either).

Then there were those Gems, Gems that Castiel planned on forming into Mystic Codes at the end of his training. If his possible subordinates were to not have proper equipment, it would be his job to provide. He would not have anybody dying under him if he could help it. Plus, it would likely help him earn their trust since according to what was learned, these people can refuse their orders if they feel that they are not worthy enough to lead. Castiel would not let that happen, otherwise he would disgrace himself as the Heir to the Tower. Those three hundred hours or a bit over 8 days were quite useful for that as he had the time and the energy to do a lot of things during the time period.

Meanwhile, on Nico's end thanks to his Inner World slowing time down for longer than Castiel's Time Dilation Field, he had a lot more time to accomplish what he intended. First off, was training. This Training, instead of focusing on his Devil Arms, focused on everything else other than them. Hellfire, his Spirit Bone, his Ghoul Side, his Demon Skills, Normal Skills, pretty much everything non-metal based. He had to train his Hellfire so he could use it better in closed spaces, to make it so that he only destroyed what he wanted to and left little collateral damage. Normally he wouldn't do something like that, as in the past Nico had been well into the belief that collateral damage was unavoidable, but in this case he had no choice. The damage had consequences if what he interpreted from Castiel's summary was accurate.

In addition to his Hellfire, Nico had to train his Ghoul Side in its detaching ability. Thing was, his Kagune may have a metallic appearance like his Bikaku, but it was actually completely organic. Yet it can defend itself like it were metal, hence why Castiel's Hruting couldn't cut his Bikaku. This was the basis for his hypothesis that his Kagune would be usable in the next trial. Moreover, the Kagune had the power to detach itself from the main body, then form into anything the user wants. That meant he could use it to forge weapons that he could use in place of his Devil Arms at the expense of RC Cells, or objects like traps. If what he felt like about the mission was any accurate, then he would have to do what he did when he fought alongside Theta and his CMA (Cornucopia Military Academy) in fighting the Coalition a couple years back: lead a battalion of soldiers into battle. Not something he found himself growing particularly fond of, but it looked like he had no choice. At least now, unlike back then, he had the will to access his Ghoul Side to aid in the war effort.

As for those sword techniques, they were integrated into his Hellfire training in that him and Biko trained till he could use them with Hellfire made weaponry. If he could perform them even if barely with these weapons, then an actual metallic weapon would allow him to use those techniques easily. It was like if a baby ran before walking, and when it finally tried to walk it found that it was super this training with training in his Demon Skills, normal Skills, and one got the majority of Nico's training in a nutshell.

Near the end though, he had decided to take a break from training to think up plans and ideas that he could use for different scenarios based off his own hypothesis on what would likely happen in this next trial. He didn't have much to go on, but it would be enough for some of these ideas at least. Plus, he factored in what he knew about Castiel's abilities as well, making calculative predictions and ideas. Hopefully this guy had additional tricks up his sleeve, otherwise this would be a lot harder than the previous trial.

All this, lead to the current times...

It was about 10 minutes before the Trial would begin, and both boys had exited their own training routines, refreshed and ready to go. Castiel had used blessings to recharge his stamina, dismissed his Familiars till he would need them again, and refreshed his energy reserves. He would be in tip top shape to fight in the next battle, and he looked goddamn pumped for it.

On the other side, Nico had woken up from his trip to the Inner World, putting away the books he bought by putting them within his Void Storage, before standing up and walking towards Castiel with his gloved hands in his pockets. "You ready for this, Emiya?" He questioned the Heir.

Said Heir nodded in response. "Yup, as ready as I'll ever be. You?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

For a moment, there was silence, before Castiel finally decided to speak up. "Listen, I'll be blunt, I know you're the type of guy that is very secretive about things, but this next mission may have surprises that we will likely not be prepared for, this is Uncle Zelretch we're talking about after all so we should have an idea of what powers we can use when we start the trial. As you might have guessed, I'll use my magic mostly with my familiars helping. Its versatile, and will serve as an all-rounder when things go awry." He explained, refraining to mention about the Gems since it was clear to him that Nico looked down on him for using them. "What about you, what have you got thats non-metal?"

For a moment, Nico debated on whether or not to tell this guy about his skills. He was proud of what he got,m how he trained like hell to get to the level of where he was, but like Castiel said Nico would rather not reveal to much about his powers if he could help it. Nico thought that of the young Heir, since he too could sense that the guy wasn't being completely forthcoming. Not to mention that they were on unstable terms enough as it were, thanks tot hat little argument that they had in the Temple on that last trial.

However, memories came back to him, memories of the times he fought alongside his comrades back in Gamindustri, how he revealed secrets pertaining to his abilities though it was mostly out of necessity at those points. One case being his Ghoul side, the power he had hid for so long from them. Nico refused to allow what nearly befell those girls and any other of his remaining comrades to befall another. Not this time.

But still, best to get some advice...

'What do you think, Biko? Shall we say what we can do?'

 **'From what I can tell, you both have secrets, emotional baggage that has yet to be expressed. Ideally it would have been best if you two could resolve that baggage, but I know you and it seems that Emiya won't be so forthcoming for a while, anyways. Nevertheless, revealing that information is a step in the right direction. To make an analogy, its like slowly taking steps towards rehabilitation.'**

Nico mentally hid his grimace at that word, and what it meant for him.

Remembering how he had been silent for a good few minutes, Nico finally let out a sigh as he dropped his tense guard. He hoped that he wouldn't come to regret this decision as every instinct in his body said he would. "You are correct, Emiya. It WOULD be helpful to know at least what each of us can use so we can plan around any surprises heading our way. Most of my powers and my weapons will not be usable, however I still retain my Skill attacks, normal and Demonic-based, I retain my Tentacles and Tails, Hellish elemental powers, Red Rage Ring, and other non-metal based powers."

"Right, got it." Castiel stated with a nod. It appeared that this guy had suffered similar blows to his powers as Castiel himself, since Hruting and Clarent were metal-based weapons, but at lease he himself had his arm. Most likely because it was well, his arm, and his Tyrant eye would be counted too. He would have to stick with ranged combat mostly, but if CQC was unavoidable he could always rely on the cobra style he was taught.

Soon after, the portal to the next trial appeared before the two boys, and with that, they walked in while wondering what would happen next.

* * *

When they opened their eyes, the two boys saw a perfectly normal city, much to their hidden surprise. Part of them expected it to be some form of ruined city landscape, for some reason. There were small buildings everywhere and there was a large dome covering it all.

"Well, this is interesting." Nico mused thoughtfully as he scanned the surroundings, his eyes as sharp as a hawk while taking in all the surroundings. It didn't look like they would be ambushed here, but looks can be deceiving.

Castiel did not answer as he opened his wings to fly high and watch the field. The fact that now this was possible was a relief since flying was quite convenient (and if it wasn't for THAT woman he would have been much better at it than he was right now).

Once he had reached a proper height, Castiel looked around and he saw that the city was covered in a dome-like structure and that there were towers in each cardinal direction, a river crossing from one side to the other and a great tower in the center that had soldiers sitting on top. The city was constructed close to a chain of mountains on the east that finished close to a sea that also connected to the south side that the river descended to.

"Good location, still need to worry about possible marine enemies and aerial attacks but the sea and mountains will greatly hinder invasions from two of the sides. I need to look out for attacks from the west and north, but this is not impossible with the given troops in case they are sufficiently equipped and prepared." Castiel thought out loud, just as Nico flew up to him through means that weren't all that visible. Although with the faint vibrations behind him, it seemed that his Ghoul side was at work somehow. Nico hadn't expected the Heir's actions, but it didn't take him long to reach the same height and see the same sights.

However said heir was uninterested in talking to Nico, for all either of them know they could potentially be attacked at any given moment and every single instant counts.

'In a war what decides the winner is preparations, not heroic acts' this is what Castiel's teachers taught him since he was young.

He decided to go straight to the main tower as it was likely the location of his troops.

It was a short flight, but an interesting one. Stepping on the floor he looked around as half the soldiers were wearing yellowish military clothes reminiscent of those used on the military on mission in the middle east, while the other half was wearing heavier and darker clothes that would be great for the night but perfectly useless on the day as they would be seen miles away.

"You must be our commanding officer, Castiel Emyia, correct?" One of them approached him first, he noticed that all of them had pale skin, white hair, and red eyes. 'Homunculus, huh?'. This is what Castiel thought.

"Correct, my name is Castiel. I have been declared as your commanding officer for the defense against this imminent invasion. I would like details about the security measures of the city, provisions, and any Intel you might have of our enemy. Also, what way of transportation do you have to deal with combat?" Castiel asked.

"As of right now we only have cars and a few motorcycles to move around, the Towers are mainly full of gattling-guns and a few missile launchers. We are good for a one or two day period of fighting when it comes down to ammunition, about the food I can say we have plenty enough and the soldiers are more than ready." the soldier said. "And about the enemy, we could not detect with precision what they will be sending but we know from experience that anything they send appear at a 500 meters distance from the city at maximum. It is just infuriating that they appear out of nowhere and we have no way to attack back as they move by portals that only they can use. Also, we have confirmed that we have about two and a half hours before they start to move."

"Do they have any way to pass through the mountain range or the sea?"

"While not impossible to appear from those places they generally send one or two monsters from the mountains and the sea is usually peaceful, but when they attack from there they send devastating strikes with multiple carriers filled with many enemies." The soldier explained.

"Okay, this is what we will do, I will go to the other towers and send you guys there. When you arrive I want you to prepare for battle, I will go set up traps around the area while also preparing via magic circle faster Communication and transportation system. Also, give three of each of these to the soldiers, explain to them that in case an enemy approaches too much he must throw this one at them as it will delay the enemy long enough for escaping." Castiel said while delivering a bag of sapphires for the soldier.

As soon as the soldier nodded his head Castiel took of. He still had to go to the four towers to set up basic teleportation circles, following that he had to set up more barriers around the city and also set up a magic scouting for the area on all sides.

But strangely enough he was enjoying this, he always wanted to fight this sort of battle as it was one that he knew a lot but had little contact with. At the same time he was worried since an unexperienced and bad leader of troops would cause more trouble than it was worth it.

How was Nico doing anyway? Nah~, he probably is doing fine. He seems experienced enough so he probably is doing what he believes is right.

* * *

Nervousness and anxiety filled him as Nico made his way to the central tower not long after Castiel flew off. He sported some invisible wings made by his Rinkaku Kagune to help him fly, in light of Soul Edge not being able to be used at this moment in time and his reluctance to damage the city with Hellfire. Though keeping it hidden behind a calm, composed facade, Nico couldn't help the turmoil boiling in his gut.

Nico never was a leader-type, nope he was more of a soldier who fought on the front lines. He wasn't someone who typically made the important decisions that could cost him the lives of his subordinates. He was the person who took his own initiative and did what needed to be done himself. That was the way he had gone about the majority of his battles, so the fact that he was now in a leadership position once again made him question his own abilities. It made him doubt himself, after all he wasn't someone who would be suited for such a role.

Few people truly are suited for it, they just... well, settle in.

 **'Things could have been worse, you know. You could have had your memories of back home temporarily wiped for this trial, leaving you much worse off than what you are now.'**

'Ugh, you're telling me...' Nico thought back to his Demon Persona. Luckily for him, Nico had prior experience leading a small band of forces back in Gamindustri, when he fought against an organisation called the Coalition, who went about trying to promote more modern methods of Combat. Though they didn't do it through the right means. That experience was something that helped him keep a level head, as without it he would be a shivering wreck by now, composure be damned.

 **'I would suggest, when we meet with our forces, to request the following: Intel on the situation, the enemy, the weapons available, vehicles, supplies...'**

'Do you think we should ask about prior attacks, if there have been any? Cause I've seen some areas that looked like they were once war zones throughout the city...'

 **'Possible, they could have some form of pattern to them that we can use to predict where they'l strike, so we can lay traps there...'**

Biko and Nico thus continued their discussion on what to ask his future subordinates as they flew.

* * *

It didn't take them long to reach the central tower, and when he did Nico swiftly landed before a series of men in dark military gear, each of them sporting gas masks, helmets and full-bod suits. All of them were masculine, though, as he realized by examining their body structures.

Standing from his landing, Nico walked over to them with his composure calm and professional... while inside he struggled not to break out into a cold sweat. From his prior experience, the first impression was key to earning a good reputation with the men. One of the men, actually, noticed him and jogged over while carrying what looked like an assault rifle in hands. "You must be our Commanding Officer, DEATHSTROKE, correct?" he asked.

'So, they use my Codename here, huh? Well, that makes things a little more bearable.' Nico thought to himself, feeling a sense of calmness coming from the use of his Codename. Something familiar to latch onto to hide how nervous he felt deep inside. Even with that conversation with Biko, his nerves felt like they were on an all time high. "Correct, I am DEATHSTROKE. I'd like to receive any Intel you have on our enemy, troops, supplies, weapons and the general situation."

"Yes sir." The soldier responded. If he could sense the nervousness Nico felt inside or not, he couldn't tell thanks to the mask. His emotions didn't seem too bad either, from what his senses told him. "So far, we know very little about our enemy, save for the fact that they use portals only they can use to appear out of nowhere. They usually send few monsters down the mountains, but their primary forces come from either the west or the north. Not often, but they do send carriers filled with many forces down from the seas to the south." he explained. "For weapons, we have the towers that are filled with Gatling guns and a few missile launchers. We have our men here as a main force, but we have a small reserve force to the east. Vehicles include motorcycles, and a couple Humvees for mobility."

'Alright, this is what I have to work with. Now, what did Theta used to tell me...?' Nico thought, cupping his chin and taking on a thoughtful pose. The soldier remained silent, waiting for him to speak. 'The winner of a war isn't the one who fights, but the one who survives... in that case...' An idea came to mind, but for now he needed more information. He hoped this would work regardless though. "Are there any civilians in the city? Also, have there been any previous attacks so far? We could possibly work out a pattern to predict where they are targeting."

The soldier snapped to attention when he spoke, soon replying. "Sir, there aren't any civilians on the surface, they have been evacuated to the underground bunkers beneath the city. Furthermore, previous attacks have happened but they have been mostly random and uncoordinated." he replied.

Nico furrowed his brows at that, while that didn't help much in predicting where the fight will likely take place, it did give him some idea of how these enemies likely operated. If that was the case, then he had an idea of how to proceed from here. "Then that means we will likely be facing a stronger force then. Its an advanced tactic, to send out uncoordinated weaker attacks to weaken the enemy defensive lines. Odds are, we haven't seen their real destructive power yet." Nodding to himself with this assumption, though in his mind he also began thinking of contingency ideas as to how to make up for possible failures, Nico looked back to the Soldier with a gaze as hard as iron. Nervousness, anxiety, Nico felt these emotions roiling within his gut, and he probably would till the end of the trial. However, if his combat experience has taught him anything, it was to keep a level head no matter what. "Alright, send out your men to the east and south. As you must have seen, the other officer Emiya's covering the west and north, so in case of surprise attacks we will focus on the left over sides. Those with Missile Launchers stick to the rooftops, you'll provide air cover, those who find Gattling Guns use what you can to make makeshift barricades on the ground."

"Sir!"

Soon enough, the men began moving about, prepping to head down the tower to where they would find their transports. While he did this, Nico himself began thinking to himself, thinking of ideas, anything for distracting himself from his emotional turmoil. First things first, traps. He could set traps throughout the city using his CHAINS OF HEPHAESTUS. There were more than one ways to use a Skill, you can use one to trap opponents for other Skills to take down, you can use them in ways other than what they were intended. Nico, to be honest, hadn't considered this before, as he was used to fighting solo. Alone on an ever-changing battlefield, with only his weapons as company, the only thing he'd known being battle. That was how it had been for him, and odds are he would always be part of the battlefield. However, the intense pressure on his chest and the weight of the situation forced his mind to try to come up with ideas, ideas he had never thought possible. It was an... unexpected development.

But not unwelcome...

"Oooooh, this looks promising..."

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as everything turned grey. The soldiers became frozen in mid run, their expressions unable to be seen thanks to their masks. However, Nico didn't need to look into their emotions to see that they would have had frantic expressions controlled through years of discipline training. The voice's speaker appeared behind him, shimmering into existence like a mirage. The speaker stood back to back, almost touching Nico's back while the redhead male refused to look or even acknowledge the speaker... he didn't need to. After all...

Why would he need to acknowledge himself?

A small upturning came from the other Nico's lips, the lips of the childlike Nico wearing rags, as he stood there with his hands behind his back. Nico didn't respond though, his hair shadowing his eyes to hide them from view. However, the childish Nico remained unperturbed by these events, almost like he had been expecting this behavior.

"Now, looks like we;re taking a big step, huh? Turning into a leader for these men. We cleared the 'resolution' trial back with that meanie DPU, yet it wouldn't hurt to refine what we already have. Perhaps this can help in our rehabilitation in some manner, whose to say? After all, the future we have is no longer certain, of that we are certain."

Nico remained silent, as the child shrugged his shoulders as if he had found the answer to an unasked question. Things were going quite smoothly, definitely, the child thought, an odd sense of excitement filling his chest. The child then looked up at the skies above, his eyes becoming glazed as he raised a hand as if to grasp onto the skies itself.

"The skies look so vast, don't they? Maybe one day, we too can soar through them as free as the definition of the word... But, until that time, please continue your rehabilitation. Our true self will return one day, after all."

With that, the child vanished in the same manner as he appeared, Nico's surroundings returning to normal. The male remained as motionless as he had been though, standing there while keeping his head slightly downwards. If it would rain here, he wouldn't even notice it, that was just the nature of the state he was in right now, thanks to that visit.

 **'Nico... are you...?'**

'I'm fine, Biko...' Nico replied to his Demon Persona, swiftly pulling off the thing on his eye and dismissing it to his void storage. This allowed him to unleash his Kakugan as he stared into the vastness of the city. His eyes remained vacant, like he was distracted by something, while he did so though. 'I'm good...'

"Um, Sir?"

Blinking, Nico looked to the one who spoke to him, well, an outside voice this time. It belonged to the same black wearing solder whom he had spoken too before, Nico could tell thanks to the way he spoke and the similarity of his emotions. "What is it?"

"You looked like you were lost, sir. Are you feeling alright?" the Soldier asked him.

This prompted a response from the male, and while outside he looked as composed as ever, his Kakugan having vanished the moment he registered a new voice, Nico felt like his heart had skipped a few beats inside. "I'm fine." He stated, before turning completely to face him. "I'll be alright, just lost in thought. Say, while you're here, I need to ask you something I almost forgot to, earlier: do we have any equipment for communication?" Nico questioned, frowning. He couldn't believe he had forgotten that important fact, communication would be key on the battlefield, especially in stressful scenarios. It would be best if they all had communicators or something of similar function.

The Soldier saluted the male as he responded evenly. "Most of our communications with the outside have been cut off by the invasion, however our former Officer possessed a device that aided greatly in our long-range communication. If you like, we can take you to it, the last Officer stored it within the eastern tower."

At this, Nico nodded his head in agreement. "Alright. I'll meet you at the Eastern tower in 30 minutes. Until that time, i'll be setting up traps throughout the eastern and southern city areas."

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

Time almost flew by, both for the Spec Ops Agent AND the Heir to the Tower. Each of them did their own thing in sections of the city, securing them for the future attack in a couple hours time.

On Castiel's end, the teen used an assertion of magics to create bounded fields throughout his sections, setting up traps that would either slow down the enemy or outright kill them. He didn't know much about how they would work, what their resistances were, so he prepared a bit of everything just to scope out the bases. He set up special Fields that would inform the rest of where the enemy would be, as well as Bounded Fields like the one that he had around his house to keep the girls he loved out of the Kitchen (since none of them can cook to save their lives, and the only one who could would just as son put poison or worse in the meals).

In addition, Castiel summoned his familiars to have them explore the City they would be defending, having them get to grips with the layout as well as the defensive lines. Some of his men would get a chance to be near them, and Castiel allowed it. Better relations between soldiers meant they would fight better without hindering each other, that was something he'd learned early on in his lessons under his many teachers.

At one point though, the Heir swore he saw a fiery silhouette over on Nico's area, but he soon dismissed it.

As for his familiars, it seemed that their powers would be more helpful than he thought, especially Solgaleo. Apparently, thanks to his evolution he had gained several abilities that would be greatly incorporated into the future battles ahead. One of them was Teleport, where it could teleport to a certain location, get something or someone there and then teleport back. Something like that could be invaluable for rescue operations or getting any wounded soldiers to their medical sites to receive treatment. No doubt they would be getting a fair amount of those, this was WAR after all. Casualties would be born on both sides.

Another was a Solar Beam, an ability that Castiel discovered used the power of the sun (which would be unclouded in this battle, much to his joy) to fire a concentrated beam. He could just imagine how useful that could be in sniper's role, or an anti-tank depending on the power. Not long after he discovered it, Castiel learned that the beam's power depended on the energy gathered from the sun, and if the sun was covered by clouds the beam would take longer to charge. Hopefully in the future this weakness wouldn't be exploited, but Castiel doubted that. There were a LOT of competent enemies out there, and if what he feared was true, then he would no doubt be involved with them at some point.

On the other side was Lunala, and that Familiar would have... well, a bit less of a role to play, but still a big one. Like Solgaleo, it could teleport about the battlefield, however most of its powers were based off the moon. The moon which would be overshadowed by the sun, so its powers will likely be less effective if that was the case. Castiel had discovered this during their training, as well as the fact that it had the ability to hypnotize any living object. If their enemies had humanoid or anything commanding them that had a brain, then Lunala would likely be able to hypnotize them if given the opportunity.

So yeah, Castiel found himself doing well.

Meanwhile, Nico took it upon himself to set up defensive outposts along strategic areas throughout the sections he would be fighting in. He had them arranged so that Gatling Guns had easy access across wide areas, and Missile Launchers would be able to easily shoot enemies out of the skies while simultaneously having secure defensive options. Options Nico had provided by making Kagune-based walls to protect his men with. A part of him laughed at the thought of using something meant to KILL as a means of protection, but he ignored it. He also made Kagune-based structures for his Gatling Gun wielding soldiers to give them better defense too.

Secondly, Nico summoned Urthemiel, his Archdemon. He would act as his second in command, covering the southern seas by flying overhead. This way, they had some access to air support in addition to transportation of wounded soldiers behind their defensive lines. Wounded soldiers were hindrances on the battlefield, Nico knew this thanks to prior experience with the CMA. Of course, he had expected the startled, fear-filled reactions of his men when they saw the Archdemon erupt from a pool of flames that appeared behind him, but he quickly assured them that it would be on their side.

Thirdly, was that equipment his men said was for communication, They had journeyed to the Tower it had been stored in, before the soldiers told Nico to wait outside while they retrieved it. He didn't have to wait long though, for one soldier soon came back out while holding it in one hand. When he saw what it was as soon as they placed it in his hand, Nico nearly flipped his lid if it weren't for him needing to remain composed.

That 'device' they had been talking about was the 'Shingan' the Minds Eye shaped ring. To give a refresher, the Shingan was a ring that allowed the user to have several abilities: One the ability to read the minds of anyone they chose though the thoughts they read weren't under their control. Two, they gained the ability to transmit their thoughts towards others, making communication quite easy for the wielder, and three: allow the user's hart to be read by anyone they chose worthy. Nico, at the moment of seeing it, couldn't think of a better means of communication for him, since he communicated better with his thoughts than words anyways. He had to practice using the Ring by putting it on his left hand's index finger (and if Castiel made any feminine comments he'd get some hellfire burning his dick off, see how he likes being 'feminine'), and he discovered things that made using it even BETTER.

Aside from that, things went smoothly for the two boys... but how long will that last?


	93. cross-over chap 8

**The second trial begins**

 **'It seems that the time has finally come...'**

'Yes indeed...'

Nico hummed to himself as he stood atop a building in the south, overlooking the entire sector. The male gripped his hands into fists, his left eye in its Kakugan form to indicate that his Ghoul side was awake. Heat rolled off him in waves, almost burning the air around him without causing it to actually steam. His Hellfire coursed through him like blood, ready to be unleashed upon the enemy en masse. He could feel his inner Ghoul squealing in glee, glee that it would be one of the primary powers he would be using for this battle.

5 minutes left.

There was exactly 5 minutes before the estimated time where the enemy would invade.

Things had been prepared, soldiers under his command had been stationed either on the rooftops if they had rocket launchers, or in special fortifications on the ground if they had Gatling Guns. They would not be killed so easily, he hoped, but then again this was WAR and death would always be inevitable. This was a fact he had learned when he fought with the CMA against the Coalition. Those experiences would be drawn on a lot for this battle, Nico realized, but he didn't dwell on it for too long.

While he looked out to the sea, of which he expected his first batch of enemies to come, Nico suddenly jumped when a magic circle appeared by his ear. A magic circle he found himself unfamiliar with since he wasn't that experienced with magic unlike martial prowess. Hey, he was a warrior, not a mage! "Whoa, what the?!" the male exclaimed, but when he heard a masculine voice chuckling from the Magic Circle, he quickly realized who it was. Eyes narrowed, Nico calmed down and regained his composed demeanor, before speaking with a level tone of voice that didn't betray the anger burning inside. "Emiya."

"So, while you were busy screaming like a girl, I'll let you know that I set up a communication system between you, me and our men. It'll work wonders for us, and if you wanna use it, channel your energy into the space this Magic Circle is taking, it'll activate instantly. Say I have to ask, did you get anything done these last few hours? I was too busy prepping things on my end to ask."

Castiel's voice spoke through the Magic Circle, and while Nico had some choice words for the Heir, he decided not to voice them. This was like a military operation he participated in the past, so there was a time and a place for childish antics like that. "I did, Emiya. Here's the rundown, my men have been outfitted with anti vehicle weaponry, as well as anti-infantry. I garrisoned them in the buildings and had them build fortifications for use during the battle ahead. I'll worry about anti-air on my side, but I have ways of defending against that, case in point being my Familiar and anti-air capabilities. I have a communication device that'll work for my forces, but I'm a little concerned if they have artillery. Our lack of Intel about the enemy doesn't help."

"Well, I guess this was as much as I could expect from you." Castiel remarked, hiding the annoyance burning in his chest. It was clear to the heir's eyes that Nico was a warrior through and through and while this was good in and of itself this most certainly did not mean he would make an effective leader. "Anyway, I already set up a defensive barrier on the outside, multiple traps, a surveillance mechanism to allow for quick identification of any and all enemies around us, a communication Circle for us to communicate not only amongst ourselves but also amongst the soldiers, set up smaller platoons so as to allow them to rest in fixed intervals so as to not exhaust our troops, AND prepared multiple teleportation points all around the city for quick deployment and retreat of our soldiers."

Great, this guy seemed to almost brag that he was better than him at this, Nico mentally remarked while hiding his urge to just throw a ball of Hellfire where he coudl sense Castiel's annoyance. It made him bristle with irritation and frustration. Both at Castiel for him looking down on him for not being the 'spectacular' leader that got everything right, and at himself for not doing more. He was not a natural born leader, there was little about him that would inspire others to rally behind him. Not to mention his strong independence and lack of trust in others. Needless to say, someone like him wasn't meant to lead a legion of soldiers into battle, and while a thought crossed his mind on transferring command to Castiel (who had more experience at leadership than him, his instincts said), Nico didn't know if that was even possible at this point.

"Anyway, I am sending you a soldier that is carrying a lesser copy of my surveillance mechanism. You will see that it is effective in detecting them whenever they appear. I am just annoyed that there wasn't enough time for me to prepare two more barriers to protect the city and the magic bombardment mechanism that I was planning to, I guess there is just so much I can do with this limited amount of time." Castiel said with a shrug. He was admittedly annoyed but he knew that he did at the very least the barest of the minimum for the mission.

But he guessed that Zelretch only allowed for this much time because he knew that giving too much prep time for Castiel would take away the challenge from this trial. He was, after all, taught by the Tower about how to defend territory and many different techniques centered on this.

"Alright, I'll notify my men of your embassy. They'll get the mechanism set up for the time being." Nico replied. He guessed that was something he should have thought about himself, perhaps he could have Urthemiel keep an eye out from a high vantage point as a means of a secondary alert system, but that'll only be as a last resort since Urthemiel would have other tasks to do. Before he could say any more though, Nico and his companion heard various noises on the latter's end. Their eyes hardened at this, realization dawning on them that they would have their first of what would likely be many battles.

"Hey, I have to go I just detected my first enemy. Call you back later." Castiel said ending the call.

* * *

On the Heir's end, he used the teleportation circle to move closer to the point where the enemy was. It looked like a giant knight'ish blue robot and the energy it emanated was around the low high-class.

'Ok, not that big of a problem. I could try to let the soldiers deal with them, but I'd rather not for now. I think the best option is to get as much of a impact on their minds right now, a show of power to make them not even think of questioning my authority as I am sure some must already be.'

Castiel knew that while his focus on protecting the town was clearly seen there must be at least a few that did not really understood him or would think and do something stupid, this was just human nature and war more often than not brings out the worst of people. Normally he would rather communicate with them and work together with them to build trust, but time was limited and he needed results instead of emotion right now.

He would show all soldiers that he was NOT someone to mess with and that crossing him was worse than death itself.

Finishing his decision Castiel took flight towards the enemy. Said enemy swung his sword in such way that he uprooted many trees with his only swing. Castiel could easily evade this one but for this plan to be more effective he chooses not to and instead simply put one wing in the front of the blade and whispered his name very quietly.

CLANG

The sword entered in contact with the wing and was completely and utterly useless, now that this show how superior his defense was, and when that was done he had to show offensively how powerful he was.

To do that he decided to go overkill, raising his right hand he concentrated his power at it, a great ball of light and flames appeared on his hand as he aimed at the enemy that was preparing another swing at him.

" **Cruel Star.** "

He released the ball of light and flames at his opponent, a huge explosion surged that looked one step away from a nuclear bomb due to how strong it was. The windows of many building were destroyed as the shockwaves passed through the city.

After seeing his work, a crater that now was closer to a perfect mirror due to the extreme heat, Castiel released a small smile. It was then that two new enemies appeared not far from him.

'Well, might as well show a bit more.' Was what Castiel thought as he released his other hand, from it a dark power concentrated and he released a small ball made out of pure dark energy.

" **Blackout**." He said as the ball expanded when it was close to the enemies, enclosing one of the two on a ball of pure dark energy. Before long the darkness started taking away everything from the beings inside, the energy to move, the capacity to answer, even their form was slowly taken away from them as both turned into nothing more than accumulated dust.

Castiel then aimed one finger at the other and concentrated light essence there, he wasn't a fan of using light spears like most angels so he decided to go with a separate way.

" **Salvation Arrow**." And with that a bean of focused light essence shoot from his hand, the light piercing right through the sword that tried to deflect it and going through the head of the last enemy as if it was nothing while leaving absolutely nothing behind.

Seeing his work done Castiel turned back and returned to the city. He needed to make sure that the soldiers also pulled their own weight or else they might become dependent on him, and cowardly soldiers are the worse type there was.

He turned to take a look at the new round of enemies that surged, it seemed that there would be more and more coming now and he knew what he should do. He must only act in times of crisis, otherwise, he would use his time better coordinating the soldiers and preparing a possible second layer of barriers.

He knew time was not on his side, but preparing more is essential.

* * *

On Nico's end, the male sighed to himself as the Magic Circle disappeared from view. He glanced to the city below him, and his eyes glimmered. 'Well, that could have gone better...' the male thought, cracking his knuckles. Felt a little more human than cracking his fingers at least. He could hear the sounds of conflict coming from the sectors his companion presided over, telling him exactly what was happening. 'But still, it seems that the attack has finally begun.'

 **'I do not know about you, but there is a difference between this and the men at this CMA. These men do not know you by you reputation, thus you will be considered a stranger to them. I do not think this will be meager, therefore shouldn't you check it out with your Shingan?'**

Biko spoke within his mind, and after a moment the male decided to do so. Like Biko said, this wasn't his world, there wasn't anything to make people aware of his reputation. He would be considered a complete nobody by his men, so there may be some doubt and conflict regarding his ability as leader. 'Looks like its like where a pack leader has to show his underlings whose top dog, a display of strength will decimate any attempts at a coup.' Nico thought to himself. Also, to confirm these thoughts, Nico looked down and raised his hand to chest level, showing him the ring on his index finger.

The Shingan.

Originally this thing had a rather limited range of 5 meters, just enough for one to hear their opponents thoughts if they were close enough. However, Nico had managed to figure out that, upon infusing it with his Demonic Power AKA using Desecration like he did on his Skimmer Ember and his Armour, then the thing's range increased by a wide margin. More than enough to cover the entire city. Because of this ability though, its appearance had become increasingly more demonic, with the band part becoming a chitinous black with sharp spike-like edges, while the jewel on top looked more like a slitted demonic crimson eye. The picture of his underlings appeared in Nico's mind, and with that he activated the ring by focusing on it.

All at once thoughts bombarded his mind, most of them random and distorted. Nico figured that was due to him not having much experience with the Ring's use yet, but then the thoughts became ones of confusion and hesitation... hesitation and doubt towards Nico himself. 'Looks like Biko was right, these guys doubt me already. Not surprising, considering human nature. At least the CMA had a cause to fight for, which kept them in check.'

Just then, Nico's eyes sharpened when he heard the sound of a portal being opened by his enhanced sense of hearing. 'Already?' he thought, hiding his look of surprise behind a stone-like mask of indifference. 'I doubt the guy has arrived yet with Emiya's detection system, therefore it looks like I'll have to do this myself.' He'd rather it be this way in any case, since it was what he was used to. Nico did things alone, it was just how it was. He wasn't the best kind of leader, he was a soldier, a fighter, a warrior. 'But for now...'

Clicking his fingers, Nico summoned Urthemiel behind him from a portal made purely from Hellfire. Taking one look at his familiar, Nico mentally linked up with it and gave it a command. 'Urthemiel, stick to the highest vantage point here and keep an eye out for any enemies. I'll take them out myself, let me know either though our link or by roaring.' He told it.

Urthemiel roared in acknowledgement, spreading its wings and taking flight. That done, Nico did the same with his invisible Rinkaku Kagune, taking flight towards the direction of the portals while simultaneously using the Shingan to order his men to stand by, that he would take this problem out himself. Though his emotion sensing powers, Nico sensed confusion and curiosity, as well as frustration and anger, circle through his men.

Hopefully once they saw him in action, they wouldn't doubt his ability to defend them.

* * *

It seemed the first attack wave would appear within a four way crossing. Good, at least there he could do some damage without worrying about collateral, and he had JUST the idea for it.

Nico finally landed before the first enemy, and judging by what he saw, it seemed that he wouldn't have as much of a problem as he thought. For in front of him, was what looked like a blue futuristic-looking robot. Its frame was slim but in a humanoid shape, it seemed to carry a rifle on its left side while the right hand sported a large sword.

Pft, childsplay.

That was what Nico thought while rolling his eyes, holding out his hand and concentrating. His Hellfire soon roared to life within his hand, before he focused it and condensed the flames into a solid black Javelin. Sweat formed on his brow while doing this, as controlling the chaotic nature of Hellfire by suppressing it like this did NOT come easy. It was like trying to predict when and where a storm would appear and calculate exactly how much damage it would cause. Still, Nico managed to pull it off, and so far he could only do Javelins and Sickles with the amount of training he had put into it. But that would have to be enough for today.

Once the robot saw him, it quickly charged towards him at high speeds, determined to chop his head off before he'd complete his ability. Nico however, snarled as he let the Javelin loose on mental command, watching it fly into the robot's face and embed itself there. The moment it did, the Robot's movements halted, as it stumbled back while trying to take the Javelin out. If that weren't enough, the second after it impacted, the Javelin... exploded, roaring into a fierce and spectacular inferno that raced upwards towards the heavens.

'#WHISTLE# geez, I only put a small bit of Hellfire into that Javelin...' Nico thought in awe, before Urthemiel's roars made him look to see more Portals opening around the area, revealing more Robots.

 **'Hellfire is chaotic by nature, as you know, it does not like being contained. Therefore, when compressed and released the flames are doubled in strength. Enough of that, it appears that these fools need to learn NOT to anger a DPU.'**

'You just read my mind...' Nico thought back, his hand twitching being the only warning before his invisible Rinkaku lunged forwards, tearing through the Robots without mercy by slicing them in half at the waists. They even beheaded, smashed, and tore apart the others before they could know what was even happening, such was the speed his Rinkaku was capable of achieving.

Not one to leave anything to chance, Nico made balls of Hellfire to shoot towards their remains, burning them till there was nothing left. He would rather not risk them coming back to life through some plot bullshit, and while part of him questioned whether or not they could have gained any information from their corpses, Nico didn't want to risk it. Although fast, the rate they burned and their heat was only second to their true forms when he went DDD. Unfortunately, that form had metal for Armour, so he couldn't use it. Still, at least these flames weren't pushovers either.

'Hey, Biko, how's everyone's emotional spectrum doing?'

 **'The amount of** **dissatisfaction** **has decreased significantly, mostly when you used that Hellfire javelin the first time, but there were some who saw you 'rip them apart without even touching them' according to them. Not to mention, some of them are actually female... and they may or may not want to pin you beneath them and have their way with you.'**

Now THAT caused Nico to shudder. His brow shot up, his teeth gnashed and sweat trailed down his head like waterfalls. Great, just what he needed, more fangirls. He figured that they knew how to remain professional when around their colleagues, but thanks to him knowing their hidden emotions it would be like they were just throwing them out there for all to see.

Still though, Urthemiel's warning that more robots were incoming in another area snapped him out of his thoughts, his eyes hardening as Nico decided to Warp to the next area. He could have used those teleportation circles he'd seen about, but he didn't want to risk losing time figuring out something he had no idea how to work. In war, time was precious, he knew that Castiel understood this.

Hopefully, he was doing just as well.

* * *

On Castiel's side, he was honestly quite well.

The barrier was working without a hitch and the soldiers were pulling their weight well enough. The weapons that were available were not that effective against the enemies so Castiel was now inscribing some rune patterns on the muzzles so as to give them higher penetrative capacity.

It wasn't that much of a difference on actual power, but it was clear that it was effective enough since the enemies were more easily brought down when the attack had magic properties.

Castiel was staying on top of one of the towers there and whenever he was in full capacity he would stop his work and shoot a Salvation Arrow on the enemy's side. He knew that killing these enemies was the whole objective and that leaving the work all to the soldiers would limit his points, so he still was killing them but managing himself to never overwork his magic circuits or his reserves of energy.

'Hum, that one seems different.' is what he thought as he saw a new model coming out of a new portal. This one looks similar to the previous models, the difference is that this time it had metalic wings and propulsors and he lost the sword and riffle in exchange of getting two canons in the place of their hands. And the worse part is that it felt like it was equivalent to a high high-class individual.

"Well, still isn't a challenge but I guess I should start moving myself some more here anyway. Besides, I must understand how strong this guy is." Was what Castiel said before yelling for the inner parts of the city. " **Solgaleo**!" and with that, his familiar ran to him.

Without even making his familiar stop Castiel sat on the beast's back and darted towards this new enemy.

Solgaleo roared in happiness when he felt his master on his back, this is what he and Lunala always wanted, a more active place when their master's fought.

Approaching the enemy it tried to take a flight to escape the approaching lion as its sensors could clearly tell that it was just too strong, and the censors were most certainly not wrong since Solgaleo was equivalent to at least the topmost of the high ultimate-class, a fact shared by Lunala but their new power levels were only like this because they were still growing. After all, both of them had the potential to, with time, become as strong as Leader-class at the very least.

Well, the fact the enemy tried to escape was ultimately irrelevant since Solgaleo looked at it with disdain while activating one of its skills by gathering its energy on its mouth before releasing in one mighty bean at the enemy piercing him right through.

When Castiel saw this he was torn between his pride in how his familiar was finally showing his fullest potential, and worry.

This was going too easily, simply way too easily. He understands that this is going this smoothly mostly because they were prepared from the start, but it still was simply too simple for him to defend this is if this was all he had to face.

There was a catch here, he just wasn't seeing it yet and THIS terrified him.

* * *

Over on Nico's end, the male also noticed something was wrong.

Not first though, during the beginning of the battle he hadn't paid it much mind. Especially amidst the tearing apart of his robotic enemies. His Kagune did the work there, with his Hellfire powers being secondary in immolating them till nothing remained. They had begun focusing more and more on him rather than destroying the city. It was almost like they saw him as a greater target, which was something he didn't mind. To focus on him and instead of his men would show them that the enemy would feel threatened, which will boost their confidence in him. Honestly, it felt more and more like him asserting his place as a dominant leader of the pack.

During the time between the early and the middle of the battle, something began nagging at his mind while his Rinkaku tore apart his opponents by ripping off their limbs and ripping out their circuits from within. Something bugged him, yet he didn't think much on it still since he had way too little time to think while his enemies laid it on thick on him. Though, Biko had the time to think on it since he wasn't the one fighting like Nico had been. He had the time to maul this suspicion over, to ponder it himself.

It confused the hell out of the Demon Persona, this was just WAY too easy for them. He couldn't see why this would be considered a trial, so far everything seemed to be right up their alley. Fighting monsters and keeping the weaker links out of the fight, that was something he and the main aspect were used too. After all, in their world, they were the strongest of their group. Nico knew this as well, he just didn't think on it much. It was more on the lines of instinct than anything else, since he was so used to being on his own.

Finally, there came a small respite where Biko informed Nico of his suspicions, allowing Nico to realize he had a similar suspicion in his gut. Something wasn't right here, he thought with narrowed eyes. He may not be a leader, but he definitely had good instincts largely thanks to his Ghoul side. Right now, those instincts told him that he had way too much ease in how he had been ripping through the enemy. This trial HAD to have something else to it, there had to be something more to it than this. There wouldn't be any way to call this a 'trial' if that were the case.

His gut also told him Castiel had some suspicions as to this, too.

Before he could think more, two new enemies came before him, emerging from portals in the air. Nico looked up, and narrowed his eyes darkly. These two looked the same as the others that had come before them, only one difference: they both rode these large, futuristic looking crimson armored dragons that moved on two legs, had large main bodies, long necks and elongated mechanical heads. Not to mention they wielded these long ass swords that seemed much larger than the usual ones that he'd fought earlier.

'Thee ones look tougher, but its nothing my Hellfire can't manage...' Nico thought to himself, already prepping a fireball in his right hand. Accounting for the beast's size, Nico felt it better to increase the destructive power of his Hellfire by condensing the fireball till it was the size of a golf club. However, he hadn't done that before, his training mostly considered on helping him manipulate its shape, not its mass and size. Thus, it took too long for him to prepare and thus, one of the dragons fired its own fireball at him.

Quickly, Nico formed a wall of Hellfire in front of him, one that spread across the entire street that caught the fireball and quickly devoured it. Hellfire flames were some of the most aggressive, yet severely powerful, flames there were. They lost it to Urthemiel's primordial flames though, s they were the hottest flames in the dawn of existence. Once the fireball had been consumed, Nico manipulated the wall into several smaller fireballs, shooting them towards the Dragons.

While one got hit, the other one ascended upwards and flew over the rest, much to Nico's annoyance. Its maw opened, and judging from the glowing of that thing's interior, Nico realized it was going to launch another one at the very city around him. His eyes widened at that. 'Sit, is it planning to take out the city along with me? If that's the case, then they must see me as a Threat, but what about Emiya? Meh, no time for questions, gotta react fast-!' he thought...

Before the loud roar of his Archdemon echoed through the skies as its shadow flew overhead.

Urthemiel, having seen the situation it's master found himself in. roared in fury, fury towards the enemy for daring to try and take out its master. That would not stand, therefore these wretches needed to be punished. Severely. It quickly coated itself in primordial azure flames like a phoenix, ripping through the other dragon with ease. The Dragon's Armour, while looking more defensive than the basic soldiers, seemed to be unable to withstand the heat of primordial flames, folding under them like they were smashed by a powerful wrecking ball.

While its partner was distracted, Nico quickly gathered more power for his own attack, putting it into a Fireball and hurling it towards his opponent. He decided that, instead of compressing the fireball, just to add more power to the base one instead of compressing its chaotic nature. He REALLY needed to train more with these flames, the male thought when he saw his attack hit, burning the dragon and rider with it to nothingness.

Once they were burned out of existence by the two flame types, Nico saw Urthemiel land before him, sending rippling shockwaves through the ground upon its landing. There, the Archdemon lowered its head, almost purring when the redhead male smirked as he softly rubbed its snout. Only he, alongside anyone Nico approved of, could do this and any who didn't meet this requirement would be eaten alive.

Unfortunately for them, more portals opened up, both on the ground and on the skies to reveal more robots and robotic dragon riders. 'Ugh, this is going to be a LONG trial...' Nico thought to himself, groaning mentally while both he and Urthemiel turned to scowl at their enemy. Their eyes blazed like the fiery elements they commanded at the sight of their foes getting reinforcements.

Taking one quick look to each other, Nico nodded in the enemy's direction, and thus the Archdemon understood its master's intent, showing this through the grunt it gave before they both took off, Nico on the ground and his familiar in the Skies.

* * *

It has been 12 hours, and Castiel understood clearly enough what the real problem of this trial was.

A test of endurance.

There was never an enemy that was simply too strong or anything of the sort, the problem was that the sheer amount of enemies was staggering. It was like a never-ending tide, they just kept coming and coming non-stop.

After using a magic blast to blow up another one of the robots Castiel decided to call Nico, mostly to confirm how everything was going on his side. Castiel realized long ago that Nico was not used to commanding large groups (Castiel at least had those terrible simulators of war to guide him), and he knew how an inexperienced commander could screw over a perfect army without much problem.

And the mood of the soldiers was growing worse as the time passed, but at least it was manageable since Castiel requested part of his hull from the meat he had with Nico and gave it to his soldiers to eat while resting.

He was wondering if Nico at least thought about doing that much or if he just let them eat the food from the city? If he chose the second option then Castiel had to know, mostly to stop Nico from committing any idiotic actions that could prejudice the whole mission. After all, Nico had not programmed rest groups so his side was more heavily guarded but also his soldiers must be getting exhausted, and if he did not share his food then the soldiers would see him in a bad light since he did not provide anything for them beside his own martial powers.

If he really fell on this trap he would not be seen as an actual leader, just a strong mercenary.

Preparation was the key for any war, and this irritating fight most definitely could count as one.

"Nico, I want to talk to you."

Soon enough, the redhead's voice responded after a god solid 4 seconds. Though when it did, Castiel noted how Nico sounded like he was in a mix of emotions. "Yea? What do you need?"

"Just wanted to confirm how many enemies have your side faced."

"Oh, about 300 until now. Why?" Nico answered.

"Nothing, nothing. Just wanted to make sure how pressured your side is right now. After all it must be around time for them to eat, right?"

"Yeah, I guess? I mean, I think they can hold up a while more before stoping to eat." Nico said, earning a mingraine from Castiel at this words.

"Wait a sec, correct me if I am wrong but you did plan for regulat rest troups, right?"

"And why should I do that?" Nico asked annoyedly. "They are soldiers, they just have to keep fighting and that is that. When they are tired they will probably just fall back and rest anyway."

"Wait a sec, you mean that you ALLOW them to do as they please?"

"Well, no of course not. I did put my familiar to watch over them and make sure that they do not slack off. We are here to win this war." Nico said proud of the idea that his instincts guidedhim to. His instincts never lied before so this must be the right answer.

Castiel was honestly speachles when he heard that, it was WAY worse than him ever expected.

'Shit, I am working with a freaking amatheur. A fucking noob is the one supposed to watch my back! Wait, he must have done something, ANYTHING for his soldiers. He couldn't possibly be this stupid on how to lead an army.'

"Do you still have that food you got from the desert? Did you not think about giving some to your men?" the heir asked, bluntly. There was no sense beating around the bush with him anymore, he just had to know if Nico had done at the very absolute least this much.

"Uhhhhh... no, of course not. This is my food so why should I share it with them anyway, they do have food in this city after all."

Nico himself could continue fighting for a long time yet. He had thought that tightly packing them together while diverting the majority of the enemy's attention to himself would have worked. It was his default strategy when in a team and it haven't failed him.

Yet.

Back to Castiel...

Twitching eyebrows could be seen on the heir's face as he groaned, facepalming so hard that the nose of any normal human would break in many pieces, before he finally decided to say it. He'd been holding back for a while now, but this was just the last straw for him. "You really are a stupid neanderthal at this, aren't you?"

"What?"

"What? Were my words to complex to your maggot self to understand? You don't get what it means to be a leader and don't seem to care about getting it either. As you are now you are more of a liability than a resource, honestly speaking you're not leadership material. Freaking going with his fucking shitty instincts, goddammit this is worse than fighting those damn Iscariot again. As you're now you can only amount to a powerful mercenary or a watch-dog. You shouldn't have ever gotten that position in the first place if you only think with instinct and guts. I honestly can't fathom what the hell was uncle thinking when he chose to put the two of us on this trial? Was it to test my freaking patience with your hopeless self or was it to make sure that he would get some laughs when you fail?" Castiel questioned, ignoring the anger in Nico's voice. "*SIGH* Listen here because I don't feel like repeating myself. A leader shares with their troops, prepare his troops for victory and ready a plan for defeat, he protects his troops, and when they're in distress they help their troops through the trials. You've only been doing ONE of those things, you idiot. You also DON'T listen to just your gut, you use your head when leading an army."

"Oh yeah, then why don't you try and lead them then? See if you can do better!"

"Okay." The heir replied, shrugging his shoulders. It seemed that riling the guy up wasn't that hard after all, and honestly if he had only handed leadership over to him before then this wouldn't have happened. It was all on his head right now, so yeah. Castiel was the one with leadership experience, since he HAD been raised to be the leader of an organisation one day.

All Nico had to do was fight and fight, he was a soldier not a leader.

* * *

On Nico's end, the male groaned and snarled, breathing heavily while his eyes, mismatched thanks to his Kakugan being active, glared heatedly downwards. His Rinkaku, affected by his emotions, shook off their invisibility to show themselves while performing a quarter on a nearby enemy. A ground soldier whom had tried to get a quick strike on him while he was distracted. His Bikaku also came out, 2 Tail's looming over his shoulder and the other two circled beneath his sides so their tips pointed at his face. All of them quivered though, like they were stopping themselves from going on a rampage to reflect their wielder's anger.

'God that guy can be fucking irritating, sometimes...!'

As he thought that, a tail smacked the ground, ironically going through another robot's head along the way. The headless robot's corpse fell to the ground, front first with a loud bang, though Nico's frustration-riddled mind didn't even attempt to acknowledge it.

Yet even as he thought that, Nico found one thing that kept coming into the forefront of his mind, something that only worsened his irritation at this whole thing. That something, was the fact that the Heir had a point, that he wasn't acting like a proper leader would. If he commanded an army of monsters, he doubted it would be the same as leading humans into battle, but right now he had humans to lead. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't been doing such a good job of it. He had thought that packing them together and providing defensive measures would have been enough. He didn't even think about if they should have food rations provided for them, or organize them better.

The word 'watchdog' struck a chord in him, too...

Two robotic dragon riders charged at him from above and behind, intending to get past his Kagune's defenses to rip into him since their fireballs had been unable to pierce through the male's Rinkaku. However, Urthemiel stopped them by unleashing many fiery attacks of varying sizes and shapes, incinerating them. From their carcasses, a rain of embers fell down upon Nico, the male swatting them aside with his Rinkaku so they didn't even touch him.

Though, that first one could be attributed to his Ghoul side working against him. The thing about Ghouls, was that they weren't really leader material or were the type to share their food, or anything really, with others, often just taking it all for themselves.

If another tried to intrude on their meals, chances were that a Kagune or two would end up flying, usually leaving one poor sod going to the afterlife and the other enjoying the spoils in peace. Those instincts were part of him, and he listened to them regarding practically everything. They hadn't gotten him killed yet, but that was the thing. They hadn't gotten HIM killed, they didn't give a damn about those that he leads. Going with his gut wasn't a bad thing as a warrior, hell it's actually preferable. However, Leaders couldn't do that as much, instead, they had to go with what their brains told them. They had to think more about their soldiers then themselves.

If this battle didn't go the way it had, then Nico likely wouldn't have realized this. It had become quite obvious to him what this was, a battle of endurance and attrition. Attrition warfare was a military strategy consisting of belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and material. That was the way that these enemies were planning to win, by exhausting them and the forces of their supplies before going for a final assault. This had been something he had looked into during his time with the CMA, though he hadn't much experience with it himself, being someone of... well above average stamina thanks to the events in Leanbox.

 **'I know you are blaming yourself, for this Nico. However, being a leader isn't** **something** **neither of us are used to, therefore we are prone to making mistakes. This is just one of them, at least be** **grateful** **these people aren't anyone we know of.'**

Biko's words sent shivers down Nico's spine, horror-filled thoughts rising through his mind. Outside his eyes widened and he tensed, his Kagune momentarily freezing up in response to his emotions. His enemies saw this coming, and in a bid to get one up on him, rushed to overwhelm him with severe numbers. They cut him off from escaping from all directions, but before Urthemiel could lend some aid to its master, Nico's Kagune lashed out in a wild frenzy, shredding through Armour like a hot knife through butter. Or perhaps a lightsabre through practically anything since his Kagune didn't seem to have any difficulty tearing through even the greatest of Armours.

Yeah, he could DEFINITELY take solace in that. He didn't want to THINK about what might happen if one of his reckless decisions costed the life of one of his comrades.

 **'Also, think of it like this, now we know what we can train on in the future, instead of just improving our strengths. We can improve our leadership skills, and we have someone perfectly capable as a mentor. Training solo is good, but mentors are there for a reason.'**

Again, that was also true, though asking Castiel for anything left a disgusting taste in his mouth. No offense to the guy intended, but he would have liked to got better on his own, he was just that independent of other people. It had been how he had lasted this long, and he feared to ask for others to help him. Even with what happened in Leanbox... Then, he remembered the faces of the girls he called comrades, how they could have been hurt by his actions, and his eyes steeled themselves.

He would likely have to swallow his pride, but... if it were to help his comrades in the future...

But before that, he had to notify the men that they would be getting a new leader... while he mentally decided on what percentage of the gathered meat to send to them.

"Sure, if this is what you decided commander." Is what the soldier that should relay his orders said.

Nico looked all around and noticed how the dark emotions that he was originally feeling bubbling up deep on his soldiers lessen considerably when they heard that they would exchange commanders for a while with the commander of the other troops.

Seeing this was quite the shock to Nico, though he maintained his Mask of indifference when the time came. However the bigger shock was when he arrived on the other side of the battlefield to 'command' Castiel's troops.

It was overwhelmingly different.

The number of actively fighting combatants was smaller, but it was the right number to defend the place without any major difficulty. The resting group was perfectly divided into a small platoon to prepare food and ready the ammunition, one number was separated exclusively to treat any wounded soldiers with maximum efficiency and the resting troops were having warm meals and enjoying themselves talking and exaggerating about their exploits on this and previous fights.

Even if an enemy managed to get closer there were traps prepared all around and the barrier on the city stopped any large-scale attacks.

Heck, there was even more ammunition since, apparently, Castiel managed to improve their heavy weaponry lessening their waste.

This was such a huge attack on Nico's pride, he saw someone his own age that was just as strong as him that could do something that he was incapable off.

Heck, the soldiers on Castiel's side directed him on where to fight instead of the other way around. This was a whole different type of humiliation, a clear-cut demonstration of how he lacked even on a battlefield. Somewhere that he never thought he would fail at.

This... this couldn't continue. That was what he thought as he followed the orders that were given to him, making sure to mask his inner thoughts while doing so. As he continued to fight against his opponents, all the while using the Shingan to familiarize himself with the way things were run by reading everyone's thought patterns, Nico confirmed it to himself.

The difference between him and Castiel in this situation was too great to ignore.

Unfortunately for him, during the battles he got some lip from his Ghoul side, whom had a few words to say to those white-wearing soldiers. Especially when they started directing Nico throughout the battlefield. 'ARRGH, THOSE FUCKERS! THEY THINK THEY CAN ORDER US AROUND LIKE THEY'RE THE TOP PREDATORS IN THIS JUNGLE?! FUCK IT, KING WE SHOULD TEAR OUT THEIR INNARDS FOR THIS-!'

'Shut it, you.' Nico stomped down on his Ghoul Persona's rantings, the finality in his voice curb stomping him into silence. He didn't like it either, but this would serve as to remind himself of the lesson he had learned from this. Ghouls may be creatures of instinct, however it didn't mean they didn't learn. It was how their Kagune became better versatile, after all.

He should know, he'd made his Kagune as dangerous as it was BECAUSE of this... though he felt like his intelligence had taken a blow from all this.


	94. cross-over chap 9

Things slowly got from bad to worse.

That was what both Castiel and Nico thought to themselves while they constantly fought the barrage.

Thanks to Castiel's idea, the black-suited troops fared much better off than when they were under Nico's command. The fact that Nico had not been a proper leader did irk the Heir immensely, however there was an upside he had not considered during the argument he had (or rather him ranting). That Nico's strategy to draw all the attention and aggression to himself also served in preventing casualties. Thing is, while his actions irked him a whole hell lot, when he arrived and counted the amount of soldiers still remaining, part of him had been surprised at the lack of casualties, there were many more than what he had expected. It was like Nico had drawn in the majority of the invasion force to his position just by existing on the battlefield, allowing his troops to take pot shots at the enemy. In turn, Nico was able to exploit more openings.

The guy may not be a good leader, but he did do SOMETHING right at least.

On Nico's end, the teen just kept the system previously established going, no need to change it that would mess anything up. Things were done much more effectively than what he had done, which did irritate and humiliate the male, but it also proved to him that he had a lot to learn yet. It also showed him the difference between a human and a monster in terms of combat limitations... if he were to command an army, he would rather do it with his own kind, monsters instead of humans. Though, this didn't detract from the issue that he currently took to heart, and THAT was something he refused to ignore.

After all, Emiya had been right... about everything he said, as much as it pained him to admit it.

Nico felt his pride was important, but if it prevented him from growing stronger...

However, there had been one good thing to come out of this that the white suited Soldiers noticed whenever Nico was deployed to certain areas. And that was that enemies seemed to target him more than others. The teen had explained that thanks to his Red Rage Ring (a piece of equipment he told them) that he had managed to make them overflow with anger towards himself that it took over their higher reasoning. Hence, why they were attacking him more than anything else. Still, while that did SOMETHING right before, it didn't make him seem like a better leader, it made him seem like he was more of a warrior, which ironically proved Castiel's point even further.

Still though, despite the two's efforts, none of this would make any difference if they didn't find a way to stop the invasion...

* * *

'Hmmm... if these guys are attacking us like this, then they have to be taking orders from something, right?' Nico wondered as two invisible Tentacles impaled a robot in the chest, then ripped it apart from within. Something told him that these attackers had previously given orders, he noticed this because despite their random spawning times, there were specific targets that they ALWAYS attempted to get to. Though, he had made them come towards him thanks to his Red Rage Ring (even now he was using it to draw the enemy into traps and stuff that Castiel had set up previously).

 **'It would make sense, these robots attack in far too organized a manner once they exit these random spawning points. My guess is the enemy is waiting to show themselves... we should confirm this with Emiya, even if you hold disdain for him thanks to that argument.'**

That was an understatement, but Castiel didn't say all that without reason, Nico reluctantly admitted to himself (while shooting down his Ghoul Persona's ravings with a figurative mountain). That was something both humiliating yet true for the male, however that wouldn't stop him from conversing with the Heir over tactics. He not a leader type, never was, but he could at least do something. Thus, he made to activate his Shingan, he didn't understand fully how the communication circle worked and he wasn't sure if it would accept his energy or not.

'Emiya, can you hear me?'

 _'HUH?! What the hell, Nico?! I thought I told you to speak to me through the Com circle I set up.'_

Castiel's voice yelled through his mind thanks to the Ring, which glowed while his Kagune protected him from multiple projectiles.

'You did, but this is important, I'm in combat right now, and I'd rather not use something i'm unfamiliar with. I'm not as familiar with your magic as I am with this Ring i'm using to send my thoughts to you. Never-mind that, we need to talk about the enemy.'

 _'Ugh, can it wait? I'm kinda busy here, we're dealing with a pretty big load of enemies that just spawned...'_

With a single thought order, Nico commanded Urthemiel to act, and it obeyed. With a roar, it let loose a barrage of fireballs from its position over the city (after tearing through a couple air forces) that destroyed the force attacking his former troops. He knew this thanks to the sounds of fiery explosions and the azure flames he saw in the distance while his Kagune took care of a bunch of dragon riding robots.

'Are you free to communicate now?'

 _'... What is it?'_

'Its the enemy. I believe that they have pre-conditioned orders given to destroy specific structures. After they spawn, I've noticed they head in the same direction depending on where they spawn, with no deviations from those courses. My theory is that the leader see's those structures as targets. Odds are, with the way things are going, if we concentrate our defenses around them we can cause the enemy leader to change his plays.'

' _Wow, and you only took a fucking ENTIRE DAY to figure that one out. Congrats.'_ Castiel sais with a voice dripping with sarcasm. ' _It should be freaking obvious after the first ten MINUTES of this shit show that there would bean leader organizing these troops. I mean, come on who do you even think IS our final enemy? Stop putting all your cards in instinct and guts or whatever else you think with your little head, think rationally at all times and ALWAYS fight your best and be ready for the worse. A leader must ALWAYS be thinking about his next step, don't let the battle you see overwhelm your rational thinking or you WILL cause a disaster. Fuck, as far as I know, the only reason why half your troops haven't been killed was dumb luck and coincidence that you just happened to have something that just happened to work for this. Well, you know what, focus on what appears in front of you and stop fucking stopping me to say the obvious! Just talk to me when you hear about something that ACTUALLY matters.'_

* * *

Castiel cut off the communications at that point, putting a bit of energy on his skull spirit bone to cut off the conversation with Nico for the moment. If he wanted to talk again, then try using the magic circle THAT CASTIEL ALREADY PREPARED! This was just another reason as to why Castiel was with ZERO patience to Nico, his unwillingness to learn anything from others.

Honestly, can't this guy understand even a little bit of what he was saying? He was supposed to be LEADING an army, not fighting on his own. Fixing his mess here was more headache inducing to Castiel than the actual battle, all because Nico could not even copy, COPY, what he was doing and telling him.

When dealing with someone that was overconfident about something that they are not actually good at, the best way was to show them their problems. Make sure they are forced to see their mistakes, even if they don't want to.

Sigh, Castiel was too young for this shit.

Anyway, he now had bigger fish to deal with. Mainly the fact that the ammunition was getting dangerously low. Of this continued then the soldiers would not be able to fight anymore. Seeing this Castiel decided to make something about it, he asked for Eevee, Solgaleo, and Lunala to go crazy on the enemies while he walked back to the base where the soldiers were staying.

"Commander." One of the soldiers gave a respectful salute as soon as Castiel got close. The respect in the soldier's eyes was clear to see, something that put a small shadow of a smile on Castiel's face.

"Stand down soldier. I will need a quiet environment to what I plan to do next so I will need you and your men to focus on only eliminating those who get too close to here. Otherwise, focus on collecting as much metal parts from these fuckers as you possibly can."

"Sir, yes Sir." He said as a small group of soldiers went out to bring me metal while the others continued to do as ordered.

I guess this is as good an opportunity as any other to work on my golenmancy, not that I am any good at it but this metal is of high quality and is a great magic inducer so this could probably help me bridge the gap.

And with this much metal to work with and my time dilator field, I can start on one of my childhood dreams.

Commanding a robot army to save the day!

'Now all I need is to get to work. This will be a good chance to improve as well, constant evolution is something to be happy about.'

He would get stronger, he would NOT be contained by the powers given to him by that wrench.

* * *

'Wow, isn't he being a jerk...?' Nico thought, sensing the abrupt severing of the connection. Something told him that he shouldn't talk to the guy for a while, at least until after this failure of a trial had been taken care of. Seriously, Castiel had already proven his point about him being better than him at leadership, no need to be a dick about it. He himself didn't see the guy in too good a light, but he at least tried to be civil with him. Not to mention, Nico didn't even NEED to look into his emotions to sense the chaos that was slowly getting a grasp on Castiel's being. 'Odds are...' he thought while listening to an order from the Commander of the white suits via a magic circle, then proceeding to head to the next area. 'That he doesn't even realize it either.'

 **'Indeed. as a personification of Demonic Power, I can handle his emotions easier than you. Nevertheless, even I don't exactly feel comfortable with how his emotional state his being has. In fact, If things go on this way...'**

'You're right, a confrontation is inevitable... best set it straight with him after this trial, no more distractions, no more bullshit. Emiya may think he's better than me at this stuff, and he's right about that. Guy's a natural born leader, even I can see that. But right now, whatever's bugging him is slowly getting a foothold, I don't care WHAT kind of mental or soul resistance he has.'

Shaking his head, Nico decided to focus on his opponents, quickly calling Urthemiel back to him. The giant Archdemon quickly flew to its master, landing before him while crushing a robot soldier beneath it, roaring into the atmosphere. The roar itself sent any nearby enemies away from it, of which it grabbed them with its tail before smashing them into the ground, destroying their remains with Primal Fire. It then looked towards its master, a happy roar escaping its lips as it lowered itself into a sitting position. It became clear to the male what it wanted from him, and he didn't feel exactly complied not to.

With a quick motion, the male hopped up onto Urthemiel's back, utilizing his Kagune to whack away several robots who tried to slash his head off, before Urthemiel got into a standing position and roared, unleashing a wave of Primal fire that burned away more of the soldiers. Though it soon became useless as more soldiers kept spawning from the portals. Soldiers and dragon riders to be frank.

Just as he was going to deal with them...

"SIR!"

A shout came from one of the soldiers by the use of the magic communications (which still irritated Nico when he had to use, why can't it just be something he is more comfortable with like ultra futuristic walk-talks or something demonic, maybe that can shoot lasers or that eats souls? You know, the norm).

"Sir, this is urgent! There is an invasion on the west side, a strange beast appeared and the people that were guarding the west are all getting excessively sick. It is a hairless, indigo and purple mollusk mammal beast, with two pieces of hair coming out of its snout-like nostrils, forming whiskers of a sort. The backside of the head shows several veins. The beast is quadrupedal, with all the legs resembling hoofs that are actually tendrils formed around large spikes within. The mere air around it is poisonous enough that even our bullets don't manage to get close before just 'dying'. We need reinforcements there pronto!"

Narrowing his eyes, Nico scowled. That didn't sound good, not at all. Poison enemies weren't something he particularly liked to fight, especially with his recent experiences with that kind of attack. The fact that there was one such enemy having appeared from the West did NOT do their army any favors.

"Understood! Gather any of the sick and injured and get them away from the beast, its likely that the beast is generating that sickness by its aura! Getting them away from it should help!" Nico responded. He looked to Urthemiel's back, and after a moment's thinking, steered him towards towards the West side. If this was a poisonous enemy, he would rater like to attack from a distance so that poison didn't reach him. Nico knew one of his weaknesses was poison, but he didn't know what kind of poison that was, and his resistances to it usually came from his DPU form. It had of course, granted him minor forms of those resistances, but if what the soldier said was true that wouldn't be nearly enough for this one. While flying high, Nico looked down from his perch on the Archdemon he saw Castiel sitting in his lion familiar, which admittedly looked awesome, and going straight south.

Nico decided to ask him, however thanks to is prior conversation, his instincts told him that his Shingan wouldn't work on the Heir right now. His gut proved to be right, as the Ring simply didn't activate when he wanted it to. At first, he didn't know what that was, but then figured that the Heir was blocking it on his end somehow, making him groan in irritation.

 **'Nico I believe the boy wishes for us to use his Magic Communications, and is stopping us from doing our own.'**

'Yeah, I know. Geez, this guy's annoyance levels are going through the roof! #SIGH## alright then, lets see how this ting works...'

Feeling even MORE frustrated Nico decided to use the magic communications for the FIRST TIME, and realized that he only had to transfer a minimal amount of any form of energy for it to activate. 'Seriously?! It was THAT easy?! Shit... okay, now I feel like an absolute idiot... not too far off then, if what other people have likely been thinking, too.'

With that thought attacking another spot of his pride, Nico felt the line form by his ear, in the form of a Magic Circle, and with that he spoke into it.

"Are you hearing me Emiya?"

'Y _eah, what do you need now? Did you decide that screwing up and almost losing HALF the city wasn't enough and make some dumb shit on the side that I already organized?'_ Castiel responded irritably. He was never fond of sharing authority and having to do that and putting the lives of many on the hands of someone incompetent was something that brought bad feelings to the young Heir, especially when he already was NOT in his best state of mind, to begin with.

Mentally, Nico rolled his eyes. The guy was still a jerk, then, he didn't even need to use his emotion sensing abilities to see that. Part of him wanted to just tackle the guy and rip out his intestines before he could react. Still, this was combat, like Castiel had said, and thus what he was feeling shouldn't be allowed to distract them from the task at hand. Nico mentally pictured having to hold his tongue in front of authority figures, and he found his 'Mask' calming him down. "Just reporting in: There is a strange monster invading on the west side of town, attacking via poison. I am going to intercept him now." Nico explained.

' _Tell me the details of this monster.'_

"I heard it is a hairless, indigo and purple mollusk mammal beast, with two pieces of hair coming out of its snout-like nostrils, forming whiskers of a sort. It-"

' _Yeah, I know what it is. Sheesh, I have different orders for you. Go to the south, there is a gigantic aircraft carrier approaching with many others together, all carrying many of these annoyances with them. There are plenty of enemies there and this is probably the best spot for your skills to shine. Don't worry about the north and east, for now, I used these last few hours to create a small army of golems that are creating ammunition to replace our used stock and to fight head-on against the enemies on those two sides.'_ Castiel explained, already feeling relieved that his work had done much more than he expected.

"Wait, I am closer to the west, shouldn't I go and face this beast? It will be faster." Nico questioned. It seemed like the logical step, and he HAD fought some poison based Abnormals before. He had equipment that could help him resist poisons, not to mention his DPU resistances and his Ghoul side. The side of him that would be able to hold off the poison's effects long enough for him to do something about it. Hell, if that didn't work, he could perhaps use his Leg's Spirit Bone to seal the poison away.

' _Are you fully, completely, and undoubtedly immune to all poisons in existence?'_ Castiel asked, bringing back memories of what Nico went through on the hands of a poison not long ago. Hearing the lack of answer Castiel put a small smile and said. _'Well, I am so you should listen to me on this. If I am not wrong this one is an **Invite Death** , a beast known for its potent poison that can kill anyone below Leader-class in a matter of minutes, and sorry to burst your bubble but you are most certainly NOT on that level. Heck, this beast is another one that is marked as a KILL ON SIGHT due to how absurdly poisonous its very presence is; if Gaoh is dangerous because of excessive predation than the Invite Death is more so due to its presence alone as it can destroy an entire forest just y sleeping CLOSE to it.'_

That shut up Nico's complaints, if only barely. He knew that he was most certainly not immune to poison, resistant to most maybe but not immune, so this threat struck too close to home for him. Not to mention, this aircraft carrier interested him the moment he had heard it from the Heir's lips. Multiple thoughts and ideas raced through his mind, thoughts that he found himself somewhat eager to test out. If he left this to Castiel, then he'd be able to pursue these ideas. Though, it still didn't take away the bitter taste in his mouth for listening to this asshole...

Almost as if he felt pain to say these next words Nico said.

"...Understood..."

Nico had a clear understanding of one thing as he mentally steered Urthemiel towards the Aircraft Carrier, his pride was being broken piece by piece by Castiel during this mission. And he was NOT enjoying it.

* * *

Why, just why can't one thing go my fucking way? I wanted to prove to myself that I am a good leader, this place being a perfect opportunity to test myself, to show me that the disaster that was the fight against Kokabiel wasn't my fault.

But what happens? I must share command with someone inexperienced that is too full of pride to ask for help but keeps making mistake after mistake and I have to spend more time thinking on how to fix his messes then on my own objectives!

Solgaleo felt my agitation and turned to look at me with concerned eyes, but I simply put my hand on his head to calm him down. I understand that he is worried, but it is still my duty to him as master to show him a facade that everything is fine.

Well, at least I already have an objective for right now in sight. A purple cloud approaching fast in my direction, seeing the enemy getting closer I jumped out of Solgaleo and sent him back. He was powerful, true, but he was still susceptible to being poisoned and even if I can easily heal him I do not want him to suffer.

Looking at the enemy in front of me I can clearly see his ugly face, surprise that there actually is someone that can survive when this close to him.

Well, guess what ugly thing? I will do more than 'survive', I will fucking kill you for harming my troops.

* * *

As Nico flew through the air on the Archdemon's back, he couldn't help but appreciate the calming feeling of the draconic being's wingbeats. They moved about i is pattern that, strangely enough, seemed quite calming like a gentle breeze across a peaceful plain. The feeling had been more than welcomed by the male, anything to distract him from the turmoil in his being.

The more he talked to Castiel, the more concerned he began to grow. Not just for him (his preference for female MAY be playing a part in that, part of him figured, though the fact that he felt worry for him AT ALL felt like a massive improvement on that), but for the rest of these trials. Even a blind man would notice the way he was acting wasn't quite healthy, In fact, it could be said it was the opposite. He may not be the natural leader type, much, but even he knew that kind of mentality was NOT fit for battles like this. Granted, his own mistakes didn't exactly help, but if this kept up then Castiel might go down a dark path further down the line. He knew this cause he himself once went down that path, and he KNEW that it wasn't a path fit for someone like him. He'd had his suspicions since the first trial, but now they were almost completely confirmed.

He needed to get some time to talk to the guy, preferably time between the trials. To talk the guy down and set him straight. Nico wasn't the most patient type, and his methods didn't always work. Not to mention he didn't do this sort of thing for many people. He wasn't that kind of guy, but he could o it when the need arose. His methods may be a bit unorthodox, but sometimes that was exactly what someone needed. To him, Castiel didn't seem like a character liked those who beat around the bush, yet held somewhat more patience than someone like Nico (though with his state of mind, that part was up for debate).

But, how could he do this?

 **'Why not... ask that man who calls Emiya Godson?'**

'What? You mean Zelretch?' Nico questioned, frowning as he stopped listening to Urthemiel's wingbeats. They were nearing the southern seas, and he could see the silhouette of the Aircraft Carrier in the distance. The male didn't know about that, for starters they didn't know where the hell that guy was during these trials. They may not have a way to communicate with the guy, and even if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that he would hear them out. After all, the man would probably side with his godson over him, the two off them didn't even know each other so that would be the logical thing to assume. 'Not sure that's such a good idea... What if what I have in mind makes the guy pissed enough to wipe me off the face of existence? Guy sure does seem like he could so that with ease.'

 **'True, however even HE must have noticed what was wrong with Emiya, much sooner than either of us. It would only make sense that he brought Emiya here so that he could unwind and think about things. However, what he didn't expect was for Emiya to close himself off and try to come to terms with everything alone, which could be why he brought us into this. Though I could be wrong about that last statement. However, it is likely that Zelretch is just as concerned for his Godson as any other parental figure, he just doesn't show it, keeps it behind that eccentric demeanor of his. You and I BOTH know what that is like, having parents mask their worries for their kids.'**

Yes, yes Nico DID know what that was like. He remembered his own mom, Helena Dawson, head of the Guild's Weapons Development Department. He remembered how sad she had been when he refused to let her help him with his Ghoul side. Mostly for his own sake, his own pride at being able to solve his own problems. However, it was also because there was nothing she COULD have done to help him, and she knew this. THAT had been the hardest pill to swallow for her, a parent unable to help their child when he or she was suffering.

Zelretch may consider himself Castiel's Godfather, but even he should have SOME feelings of that nature towards the Heir.

In the end, Nico decided to risk it, and see if he could use the Shingan to send his thoughts over to that crazy man. He didn't know if it would work, but by the Goddesses he would damned try. This problem had to be nipped in the bud, otherwise who knows what could happen further down the line. If he failed, he'll still do what he intended to set Castiel straight, and if he were to get erased then Nico would damn well put up the best fight he could. That way, he would die without as many regrets as he would otherwise, though he would always regret breaking his promise to Neptune, to come back alive after his reckless stunts.

With those thoughts in mind, Nico raised the hand adorning the Shingan, and closed his eyes, focusing on the Ring. Once he felt the Shingan's power activating, he projected his thoughts out towards... well, anywhere he could, hoping that Zelretch would hear him. 'Um,... Zelretch? Can you hear me? Its me, Nico. I need to talk to you, it concerns your godson...' When he finished his thought, Nico felt it get projected outwards from his position, which was just over the beach connected to the southern sea. He hoped to the Goddesses that this would work, otherwise he may not live to see the faces of his precious comrades again...

 _'yea-ello? This is Captain Zelretch speaking! What seems to be the trouble, young'un?'_

If Nico had any less composure, he would have jumped right off Urthemiel. However, he had his Demonic Power tethering him to the Archdemon's back, so that wouldn't happen. Even so, it didn't stop the surprise from etching itself across his face when he heard the ever-jovial voice of Zelretch echo throughout his mind, sustained by the Shingan itself. Holy shit, it actually worked?! What the hell, how was that possible?!

 _'Yeah, I have an advanced version of that ring of yours with me right now, I use it s a telephone service, just in case things went awry. Also as a means of ordering pizza! Hmmm, Piiiiizzzzaaaa...!'_

... Okay. Now Nico could see why the guy had such a relationship with Castiel, and why he found the man to be more than a bit insane. Nico could only sweat drop at the thoughts Zelretch sent back to him, before he shook his head to clear them from his mind. Nico had to act fast, the Aircraft Carrier was coming up hot, so he had to get his words out quickly before he would eventually be bombarded by attacks. 'Alright, then. Look, please hear me out. I know you've noticed how Emiya's been acting recently, and my fuck-ups haven't helped. But I fear the guy might lose it later down the line, so I was wondering if I could share with you a plan I have, with some of your advice? You may be eccentric, but you're his godfather so you MUST have noticed how damaged his mind's becoming.'

 _'I think you should think this over. Castiel is still dealing with more things than you know of, making anything drastic now will most likely take him WAY over the edge. I must warn you, if he goes there and truly goes all out on you the chance of you dying is quite high, and yes I am counting your healing factor in this. Castiel is carrying more on his shoulders than you can imagine right now.'_ Zelretch said in an unusual moment of seriousness. He knew what was going on with his godson and he knew how Castiel still needed some time to get all the hidden stress out of his system.

'Even so, I have to try. Not just for the trials, but for the guy himself. I doubt anyone would want to see him like this, especially those close to him. They'll be worried sick, especially if he has a love interest or not. That's why I have to do this.'

 _'... Alrightie then, sure lay your plan on me! Oh, that's a song, too! laaaaaay onnnnn meeeee...!'_

* * *

Once Nico had finished outlining his plan to the man, Zelretch cut the link so the teen could focus on the enemy rapidly approaching him. Though, he did say something that threw Nico off, and that was 'think about what Castiel told you at the beginning before the trial began'. Another one of his cryptic hints and all, and Nico figured it was about the information that Castiel had bought before their training. He didn't think much of it for now though, as he had finally closed the distance between him, Urthemiel and the Aircraft Carriers.

 **'Nico, I sense that the Carriers are not ready to fight yet. We managed to get here faster than they expected.'**

Biko's words rung through his mind soothing some of the redhead's trepidation as Urthemiel grunted while hovering over what he assumed was the main Aircraft Carrier. He said this because there was a strong energy source hidden within, one that seemed to be powering the soldiers stocked inside. He couldn't sense anything like it from the rest of the vessels that supported it from the rear, so yeah. The male could sense frantic panic within, and judging by the amount he could feel, there was a LOT of enemies down there. Easily enough to make a large army if it were to ever escape the Carrier.

Well then, he couldn't have that, now could he?

With his mind, Nico commanded Urthemiel to do two things: shower the fleet with as many Primal Fire attacks as it was capable of, leaving nothing remaining save for the main vessel. The second: to form a circular perimeter around the Carrier, to keep any enemies that escape into the air away from the city. Any that tried to escape, then Urthemiel was ordered to either turn back or turn to ash (although Nico figured out which option it would be going for easily, if the bloodlust he was sensing was anything to go by).

It soon followed its orders, roaring as it unfurled its wings. From that gesture, Nico saw what could only be described as over 1000 fireballs form from the space around the Archdemon, all of them formed from Primal Fire. The male felt glad that he practiced with his Hellfire so much, cause goddammit the heat from those flames would have incinerated him alive if he hadn't. Thankfully using Hellfire so much allowed his body to build up a strong heat resistance. In the next instant, all of those Fireballs fell upon the fleet like water droplets from a shower-head.

Of course, the ships tried to fire back, as each one aimed their gun emplacements at the approaching threat, however the Fireballs exceeded them in two areas: seed and strength. Even if some of them got a few shots off the Primal Flames making up the Fireballs burned them to nothingness before they could even touch their targets. Therefore, once the shower fell onto the fleet, all but the main Aircraft Carrier erupted into an azure blaze. A blaze that even burned through the waters around them thanks to the heat they emitted. It created this steamy mist that concealed the Aircraft Carrier from view... as well as emitted enough heat that should anything get out, they would be melted to nothingness in seconds.

Gotta love that Primal Fire.

Meanwhile, Nico himself planned out his assault in his mind in a second, and with that the teen jumped off Urthemiel's back and shot downwards like a hawk to the main deck below.

BOOM!

The male's impact rocked the Aircraft Carrier back and forth, disturbing the oceans beneath it by creating rippling waves. Thanks to the previous attack, the steam resulting from it hid the Aircraft Carrier from view if one tried looking from the land. However, the heat wasn't strong enough to melt through the hull, which likely meant that the Aircraft Carrier had better Armour than the robot soldiers or dragons. Nevertheless, the redhead didn't let that get to him as he stood up, Orangish red Hellfire fireballs forming in his hands. Turned out that was the right thing to do, as portals quickly opened throughout the main deck to let about 20 or so robots soldiers come out to face the intruder attacking them.

When they saw their opponents come out, Nico gave Urthemiel a quick mental command, and with a loud roar the Archdemon erupted in Primal flames, releasing them from its body. The flames roared like millions of tormented souls, groaning in their torment while they spread around the perimeter the Archdemon had set up, forming a sphere-shaped barrier of Primal fire. Now, combined with the steam generated by both fire and water, NONE of that so called 'large army' will be able to escape this place alive.

Just as Nico liked it.

Instantly, they attacked him, with gun emplacements turning to fire on him only for Nico to generate a rainstorm of Hellfire from the top of the barrier. The Hellfire, true to its aggressive nature, succeeded in melting right through the gun emplacements, scorching them and reducing them to nothing thanks to their heat. None of them would get a chance to fire... now or ever.

As for the robots... well, they ran into a little something called Nico's Kagune.

Seriously, his Rinkaku was a beast, especially with its invisibility. With how it couldn't be detected by the five senses, it made perceiving it almost impossible unless they could see vibrations well enough to make them visible. Something that few could do. Not only that, but thanks to those vibrations, their speed and power definitely held up against some of his stronger weapons and attacks. This proved itself when Nico's Rinkaku lashed out, ripping through groups of enemies at a time by going through limbs to immobilize them, then either tear their chests out or behead them.

Up ahead, Nico could see the main doors to the Aircraft Carrier's interior, which were slowly opening up to reveal a LOT of enemies having gathered behind them. As in, there was nearly over 100 of them, each of them narrowing their senses towards Nico, whose Bikaku swiftly came out while he pulled up his hood, took off the thing over his eye, and donned his Mask. Now, his Kakugan found itself visible to the world, while his Bikaku reared itself back like a set of spider legs. All the while, the male stared impassively, slowly striding forwards towards the army which broke into a mad sprint. Some of them shot at him with their guns, but his invisible Rinkaku took care of that assault. None of the bullets got through to him, which only made sense considering this Kagune could keep him dry in a rainstorm.

Just as he made to call forth a large Hellfire blast to erase this wretched thing from existence, Biko sudden;ly spoke within his mind.

 **'Weren't you going to test out these ideas you thought of before? Destroying this carrier would go against** **that...'**

Those words gave Nico pause, surprise welling up inside his lone Kakugan eye. Whoa there dude, hold your horses don't destroy the thing that piqued your interests! That was what he chided himself with as Nico disengaged the Hellfire, letting it recede back into his being. The male lowered his hand, which had been lifted above his head, allowing it to fall to his side limply. He had been so caught up in the thrill and the adrenaline, that he had almost forgotten what he had originally came here for in the first place. Destroying the Army was his primary objective, but not the carrier itself. Originally, he would have done as Castiel ordered and destroyed this place, but then an idea had piqued his interest, and thus he couldn't allow this idea to go investigated. Also, if he was right then they would have a MAJOR boon against the final boss, the leader of this enemy force.

An Aircraft Carrier, or any vessel built, always had data stored in their archives, archives that were either secured by passwords or security codes. If he were to access that archive, then he could gain access to a whole truckload of useful information. It could make up for his previous blunder with the men back at the city, and it wasn't like the Army would be able to escape Urthemiel's flames. That meant he could destroy them at his leisure, but Nico would prioritize destroying them first. He didn't want to leave any of them left alive to fuck things up more than he already had.

Odds were that this thing's archives had their data protected by passwords and all sorts of software, though. If that was the case, then he would have to try hacking into the mainframe to get past everything and into the archives. Attaining information wasn't always easy, he didn't always have the option of interrogating live people. He remembered back in Lastation when he had to learn how to crack pass codes and security measures to break into Umbrella security laboratories to get at their classified data. Accessing that information had taught him much about hacking into software and hardware (through trial and error though, but still that was the best way to learn in his opinion), though it wasn't often that he used those skills. Not that many knew of those skills either, since he had been kept mostly out of the public eye. Much of his involvement had been mostly covered up, his presence replaced to keep his existence a secret. However, Nico hadn't let many people know of his hacking skills, there were many eyes on him after all.

Still didn't let them get rusty though, having practiced them by himself ever since. He practiced them through his lone searches for criminals across the Nations, whenever he was told of their existence through quests. Made information gathering through technology like the internet a HELL of a lot easier, and he was definitely aware of that ironic statement. Even if he had them though, Nico didn't want to use them unless absolutely necessary, he knew how dangerous hackers could be in a technologically-specialized Nation. Or anywhere with technology as a part of its lifestyle.

Those thoughts made Nico scowl to himself, dark memories resurfacing in his mind, all of them being about the Raccoon City outbreak. He remembered what it was like, seeing countless civilians getting chowed down on by ravenous infected, to hear their screams for help only to be unable to do exactly that. Simply thanks to knowing that the moment they are bit or scratched, then it was game over for them. That they would turn into an infected monster just like the ones that bit them in the first place. He remembered the helplessness he felt while helping his fellow Spec Ops team get civilians to safety, how he had to watch come of them die for others to remain alive.

At that thought, a picture of an old man filled his mind's eye's view for a moment, before he vanished it.

Thinking back on it, that was probably the biggest reason why he struck out on his own, aside from not trusting many people. The utter helplessness to do anything significant, combined with the fact that it was covered up and made to look like an accident, spurned him into action. He had dropped off the grid, 'disappearing' in order to take the public eye off him and then wage a one-man war against Umbrella. Probably not the best idea to go at it lone, most would say,. But to Nico, he would retort back that he had to do this alone, as there was nobody else with the desire to do so other than himself.

In the end, no matter what kind of opinions one might have, not only did he learn hacking abilities, but he also brought the entire organisation into the light by releasing their classified data about the outbreak and the viruses involved to the public. They had been put on trial, and he remembered the looks on the faces of their board of directors when their fates were decided. That had been honestly one of the most satisfying things he'd seen in a long time. That incident always remained fresh within his mind, especially with the recorded footage he kept. It showed him that, with the right motivation, one can do a WHOLE load of stuff if they put their minds to it. Which was what he planned to do with this Aircraft Carrier. Gather as much data as he could and then depending on the data decide on what to do about this vessel.

Things go south, then he'd destroy the Aircraft Carrier regardless. Then face the consequences.

Couldn't let things get any worse, after all.

With those thoughts in mind, Nico broke into a sprint as he made his way towards the Aircraft Carrier's interior through the doors that USED to house those attacking robot soldiers from looked to be on the verge of closing when he did, however the male had used his Kagune to wedge them open, enough for him to get inside and then wrenched them shut behind him.

* * *

Destroying the army had been... rather easy, actually, much easier than Nico had initially expected.

Apparently, the entire army he had faced on this thing, having destroyed a quarter of their total forces (he found this out by scanning the Aircraft Carrier with his Bracers between each battle)had been hooked to this artificial AI unit that had been located deep within the vessel. Nico managed to locate and destroy it though, by using a combination of his Holomap, Motion Tracer, and the many battles he'd fought. The closer he had gotten, the m,more enemies Nico had to the time he had destroyed it by introducing it to his Hellfire, a loud 'ALL PERSONAL: INITIATE SHUTDOWN' had echoed throughout the vessel, and the sounds of hardware powering down had registered to his enhanced senses.

Whelp, that was step one, at least.

Then, with the use of his Holomap, Nico had managed to locate the Vessel's archives, and from thereon he found himself locating any form of control device for accessing the Archives. It took him a while, but eventually Nico found a control terminal. There, the male used his Bracer to access the Terminal, thus began to access it. 'Alright, so far so good...' the male thought to himself while doing this. Standing in front of the control terminal with multiple cables connecting it to his right Bracer, the male looked at its holographic screen, which showed a series of numbers floating about while the programs ran themselves. Honestly, sometimes he found it similar to letting a bunch of hounds loose to search for the location of the prey. His opposite hand worked overtime, constantly moving like it was a blur on a holographic keyboard, keeping the program running.

However, like he had assumed earlier, there had been some tight security installed in the form of defense software, anti-viruses, firewalls, etc. However, compared to the things that he found on the hardware of Umbrella this was indeed NOTHING. It almost made him snicker had he been any less composed, though he didn't let it hamper his work. Not when this stage of the hacking was underway. That Company had specialized in many fields, protecting their classified data would only make sense to be one of them.

Fortunately, things didn't go wrong, and the male finally found himself on a home screen of sorts, allowing a small smirk to form on his lips under his Mask. 'Alright, i'm in...' the male thought to himself, pride swelling within his chest as he began digging through the archives. Searching for information that could help himself and Castiel in the trial. His eyes occasionally and slightly shifted directions as he read one piece of data after another. He also downloaded copies of it into his Bracer for reviewing later, a habit he had formed thanks to his war against Umbrella. It was always necessary to have a copy on the side, just in case something happened and he lost the main files. It was something he learned from hacking into the mainframes of Umbrella's various research facilities.

'Hmmm... Oh! This could be interesting, let's see... oh shit, now i'm glad that I didn't destroy the Aircraft carrier!'

* * *

"Okay, then what to do with you?" Castiel half-asked himself as he faced the Invite Death. It was truly pathetic, the beast spent most of the time launching wave after wave of poison and viruses at Castiel, but his complete immunity make him not even feel the slightest effect of it.

In a way, it could be said that Castiel was the most perfect counter to Invite Death. The only reason as to why he hadn't defeated it yet was that he could not lock on the creature. It was immune to his curses, probably due to how scattered and unfocused they are and he never going too far with them, and locking it in place was hard as it could simply evade most strikes he would launch and it transformed the field to his advantage due to its acid poison.

"Oh well, I guess I could try and see what are my limits anyway." Castiel commented while evading a jab from one of the tendrils this beast had.

Deciding that this was a perfect opportunity for an experiment Castiel started focusing in summoning the cursed powers from the pieces of Angra Mainyu's polluted grail that resided within him.

It was, strange. Like calling out to a group of kids to wake up. Some would wake up and start moving instantly, others would take their time, slowly waking up or refusing it all together. In the end Castiel only could summon around 30% of all the pieces within himself. He wanted to see just how strong what this truly was, how deep was the power that he was born with truly was.

And so Castiel flew above the Invite Death and released his curses.

* * *

 **'WHAT IS THIS?!'**

Both aspects of the Spec Ops Agent (including his Ghoul Side who freaked the fuck out within the Inner World) shuddered when they felt it, a whole load of evil and negative emotions suddenly explode out from a nearby position. The eruption felt like that o a volcano or a geyser shooting out of the earth, roaring into existence in all its chaotic splendor. Not only that, but deep within it Nico and Biko sensed MUCH of the dark emotions that they had detected within the Heir himself, which along with memories of what Castiel had told them about his Curses, meant he had just used either a ridiculously powerful one, or just unloaded a whole barrage of them at once on an unfortunate opponent...

Nico thought it was the latter.

Still, if this was the power of Castiel's curses, Nico could only imagine what they could do in a wartime situation. From what he could tell, these curses were powered by sin itself, the sins of an entire species which made their negative emotions particularly thick. Condensed, even. If that was indeed true, then if they were at their full power, who knows what terrors they could cause on an unsuspecting force.

But still, if Castiel used that much negative emotion, then surely he would have emptied himself of some of that stress he had sensed, right? That was what Nico hoped, but he would only get a chance to confirm it for himself when he would talk to him momentarily. At least, until then...

'Maybe I'll hold off on my plan, for a while longer at least. It seems that there are variables that warrant revision of it.'

 **'Agreed.'**

* * *

"Well, I guess it was a bit much." Castiel mused to himself as he looked around. If before the poison make the area ugly to see now it was empty.

Empty of everything really, all that could be seen was a whole were PART of the Invite Death escaped and black.

And so much black and evil that it developed physical form. It was like a sludge covered everything with all manners of atrocities playing on each drop. Fake promises of glory, manslaughter, betrayals, any and all forms of evil really.

It was like this piece of the world itself was tainted, somewhere that even in a thousand years would still leave others feeling dread inside, even the plants would avoid growing here with just a few exceptions.

This mountain was now truly toxic to all life, with the only exception being Castiel himself who was feeling comfortable there. A feeling of acceptance and calmness within him for his place just felt right to him.

It was like the most peaceful place he has ever been, somewhere that would bring dread and death to others was a 'home' for Castiel right now.

But, even as he felt that he could see now. Why it was that his powers were sealed when he was younger, this power was intoxicating and dangerous beyond belief. But, he still could not forgive his 'mother' for putting this seal on him, for abandoning him, for all the pain he felt when practicing magic and how damaged she let his magic circuits be. He still could remember, even after years trying to forget, how he had to feel like molten magma was flowing through his system when he started practicing, how it felt terrible and how he waited all those birthdays for his 'mom' to appear just to be disappointed every time.

He would not forgive it.

Anyway, now he was quite sure that even if Invite Death manages to survive he would not live for long and would likely end up dying in the near future even if Castiel did nothing. Heck, he was quite sure that no more attacks would come from the mountains as even these machines would not advance through here.

Just then, he received another transmission from a particular 'annoyance' when a Magic circle appeared.

"Hello, this is Castiel talking. If this is a message about you screwing up something just tell me what you need me to fix, if something else then thank God for SOME good news from you."

 _'Is the Invite Death dead yet?'_

"Sure is. Well, dead is a powerful word, I'd say that he ran away in a similar fashion to Gaoh, but if we consider it then we will not be facing him again."

' _Was he hard to beat? I mean, I felt the dark emotions from over here and there was a big load of it coming from your area, like you had to go all out and everything.'_

"Actually, it wasn't hard for ME at all. The beast was launching God killer level poison like it was its birthday, melted half the forest and area with poison, but couldn't do SHIT against me. I am really lucky that my spirit bones focus more on immunities instead of pure power. And to be fair, no it was not that I HAD to use my curses full force, but I wanted to experiment with them."

' _And the results?'_

"I used around thirty percent, which is as much as I can due to a few problems in my body, and I can safely say that I eliminated everything in the area and the Invite Death will die soon enough even if I don't go against him. I think that using **All the World's Evil** in its raw state was a bit much. Oh well, I think all the evil and curses that humanity ever committed are not so easy after all." Castiel admitted with a nonchalant shrug.

 _'Well, t-that's something at least,'_ Nico responded, trying to hide the chills coming forth from down to even his inner world. All this power he was feeling from kilometers away was just 30% and in its raw state? Fuck armies, he could see why Zelretch said that Castiel could kill him period. He would DEFINITELY hold off on his plan if that was the case, and perhaps he should start thinking about not just rewards that could help entire groups of people, but also ones that increased his overall power levels. That mental and soul resistance stuff seemed oddly more appealing as time went on. 'A _nyway, I've found some information you will want to hear. It concerns the final boss of this Trial.'_

"Oh" Now THAT got the Heir's attention, his mix of nonchalance/annoyance towards the other male now having a tinge of curiosity and excitement to it. Information? Well, looks like the guy had done SOMETHING possibly good then. "Now that IS interesting, tell me more about it." Castiel questioned eagerly, leaning forward slightly. Information was an essential thing in the world and anything that could help him win this tiresome battle was an advantage.

 _'I destroyed the fleet except for the main Aircraft Carrier, destroyed the army inside and left the vessel intact. I feel like we could use it to our advantage, and that it had valuable info for us. I'm glad I did, cause I was right. It works like this, after both the army and the Invite Death are destroyed, the final boss is set to spawn right smack dab in the middle of the city. Not in the same manner as the other troops either, once it appears the vicinity is practically destroyed, half the city would be gone.'_

"Well, then this info ought to be wrong in a few details." Castiel replied, furrowing his brows. "If it instantly destroys half the city then we automatically lose the battle BEFORE the final match. It is just not fair at all."

 _'Since when is anything ever truly fair? FORTUNATELY, it seems that whatever you just did altered its plans somewhat, as according to the data I've acquired, its changed its spawning time to 30 minutes from now. It's been put off by your attack and will be recalculating the ideal place to spawn. There's a lot more intelligence I've gleaned, but it's best if we share it in person. I'll bring the Carrier into port with Urthemiel, could you let the soldiers know that the Aircraft Carrier's harmless so I don't get shot at? It would be both inconvenient, plus I strongly believe we can use this vessel to our advantage. It is your call on that one.'_

"Ok, we will use this vessel alright. I want you to approach the harbor, I will send the soldiers there while the metal golems go straight to the center of the city. Also, I will be planting a few of my unique seeds around to help safeguard the city itself as well as I can. Put all the soldiers inside and see if the main weapons are still functional, if they are use your hacking skills to learn how to use them even if marginally and put the soldiers to work. Let's win this bitch." Castiel said.

 _'Understood.'_

After the call ended Castiel turned on his heels and went straight back to the base he had been working on before, he had left there a few seeds he inscribed with runecraft and of a... unique type, a last minute gift he had received as a reward before entering here.

These few seeds will probably help him make sure that the boss's arrival was NOT an instant game-over.


	95. cross-over chap 10

**Second Trial Finale**

After twenty minutes of that talk, many things were done.

First was that all the soldiers were pulled back, the casualties surprisingly enough were Zero at this point in time. Nevertheless, their fight gradually came to an end, if the Boss Monster was going to be coming soon, then this fight would be best left in Castiel and Nico's hands. No matter how he felt about the other male, the Heir did acknowledge his strength as a warrior. It was obvious that he was not weak, that was for sure.

However, there was a need to replace those soldiers with something at least somewhat more expendable. Replacing them were the metal golems, they were not particularly strong but they would work somehow and they were armed with the same swords that the enemy possessed, so it wasn't that hard for them to battle. But it was an undeniable fact that they would not last long if not for the long ranged support from Lunala and Eevee.

The evacuated soldiers were all quickly moving to the inside of the carrier, some learning how to navigate it and control the weapons with Nico. A lot of the weapons had been damaged severely thanks to Nico's onslaught, however, whilst he had it dock at the city's port, he had discovered and activated the self-repair mechanisms on the Vessel. By the time he had docked it, the Vessel had been about 80% operational, and as an extra bonus, Nico had been able to hack the AI as well, allowing what remained of the enemy army to be reprogrammed to fight for them instead. Sure as hell gave the Soldiers a Heart Attack, though Nico calmed them down and assured them (whilst showing proof by commanding the robot army to do things with his Bracers) that it was fine. Aside from that, utilizing his Hacking Skills, Nico had begun showing the Soldiers how to operate the machinery, so they could operate the Aircraft Carrier to its fullest potential.

Not to mention that they had found stacks upon stacks of rations inside the Vessel, thankfully untouched by Nico's Hellfire. So hey, that was a plus.

Meanwhile, Castiel found himself deep within the city's confines. The male had been spending the majority of his time quickly planting some of those seeds he worked with all over the place in the middle of the city. The work being extremely sensitive as if he moved wrong it could spell problems later on. Just one of them he planted and let grow from the start, even transferring large amounts of his energy to put more power in order to make it grow faster. Quickly enough the seed grew and after putting his power in it for 5 minutes the plant finally reached adulthood.

"Heh, I guess this is as far as I can let you grow huh?" Castiel remarked thoughtfully, all the while craning his neck to look upwards at the HUMONGOUS tree in front of him. This was a VERY special tree, one that could probably give them a considerable advantage on this future fight. "Well, now that the Fall Tree is ready and the Protection Tree's seeds and the Binding Trees are also in place I suppose it is good enough. Now, let's go and get a few extra points." Castiel whispered under his breath with a sadistic smile.

He knew that his own killing points were probably lower than Nico's again, due to him spending longer trying to get things ready and taking care of the soldiers, but this was only temporary at best and even if his points were fewer it didn't bother Castiel as he was after something else for this trial, a confirmation of sorts. With that in mind, the Heir unleashed his Wings to take flight, ascending high into the air. When Castiel reached enough of a height, he looked to the surroundings of the city. His eyes narrowed at the large mass he could see blocking any and all escape routes by land. There was an enormous number of enemies there, easily reaching hundreds if not thousands. Apparently, this was supposed to be the final wave and as such there were that much more enemies spanning.

Just as Castiel wanted.

Putting his hands together, Castiel closed his eyes and connected himself to all the traps that still were not used, for this final stretch he deactivated all traps while putting his faith in the golems and the barrier he created. After all, it was much better to catch 10 enemies in one trap than a single one. He even was lucky, these last few ones all were similar in that they were focused in exploding. And considering how they had grown a bit stronger every time one of this enemies was destroyed and its core ended up close to said trap, taking away the energy inside, it could be well imagined what they would do.

And DO they did with Castiel next few words.

"KATSU!"

What, he was a fan of some of Naruto's characters and he liked the Akatsuki members in special. There was no better way to release a salvo of explosions then this one.

And the explosions happened.

* * *

On the Aircraft Carrier. things were going along swimmingly, much more than Nico had initially expected.

He stood on the Main Deck, overseeing the various colored soldiers as they attended to various tasks that he had assigned to them while he looked at the blueprints of the Vessel he had downloaded onto his Bracer. These blueprints formed as a Holographic 3D image of the Vessel. Much of its damage had been repaired thanks to the auto recovery system he had found through looking over the Blueprints, and it had been an extraordinary sight to behold. Watching pieces of the ship, destroyed by his Hellfire, slowly mend themselves, replacing what had been lost wand adjusting what had been damaged. By the time that the ship had docked, Nico estimated that the ship had reached 80% operational capability.

But, the system couldn't repair everything, it seemed. Its Engines remained damaged by 10%, making complete mobility that the ship previously possessed impossible. Not only that, but some of its sensory systems were rendered inoperable, as well as a portion of the weapons. Fortunately, the main guns were still operational, as well as the more necessary systems required to operate it, so Nico had used the blueprints as a basis to instruct the Soldiers on how to operate the Vessel. Some of them had once been under his command, and had at first many dark emotions at being commanded by him again, which he had expected. After all, Castiel had been right, that was something he had taken a while to completely accept. He had been right that he hadn't been a good leader, something he had realized when he arrived at the white soldiers camp.

Thus, in order to learn from his mistakes, Nico had tried to organize the soldiers into different groups, one group would work on the Vessel, with another overseeing them. A third group would be spending their time learning the more technical aspects of the Vessel under Nico's guidance. After five minutes or so, he would rotate the teams, the one working on the vessel being allowed to have a food break with both the rations on the ship (a Goddamn blessing in Nico's opinion) as well as some of the food he AND Castiel had liberated in the previous trial. Mind you, it had almost been AGONIZING to hand over a portion of his own food rations, his Ghoul instincts 'lightly' expressing their disdain for the idea. However, he had pushed on, memories of both Castiel's words, as well as... someone else's, flashing through his mind.

Perhaps... perhaps he could get some answers to these questions he had been harboring.

 **'It appears that so far, your 'apology' to your former subordinates is going well. Your 'attempts' are reaching them, as I sense fewer dark emotions towards you than when we began.'**

A wave of relief escaped Nico's lips when he heard that from hid Demon Persona. Even though he had felt those emotions decreasing from his men in a gradual manner, it still helped that someone else had already noticed. 'You've got that right, Biko. Still, now that I'm actually trying to follow that guy's example, it's becoming slowly clear to me... that being a leader is freaking tough!'

Seriously, this was a WHOLE new territory for him. He felt so lost, like he was on an unknown spec of land with no idea how to get back to his home. He honestly felt like that time when he fell into the Monster Cave and 'accidentally' stumbled onto that DPU Core that turned him into what he was now. Not to mention that he no longer saw things the same way as he once had, not the previous black and white state that he had been used to for many years. No, everything had blurred together since the events at Leanbox, turning everything into a confused grey. Was this how Theta had felt back then? To command a whole resistance of men and women willing to fight for a cause? How often did he have doubts about his cause in his own time? Was he ever unsure? These might be questions that he would have to ask the man when he eventually got to Lowee.

Taking himself away from his thoughts, Nico looked to the side and found several soldiers looking at him, wearing black uniforms. They looked like they needed something, so he gestured them to come over. In the end, they wanted to know what it was that was happening, as the men hadn't been briefed on their newest enemy. It was a valid concern, and Castiel had decided that they would not have the time for a specific briefing (he knew, caused Nico had asked), so Nico gave them a quick rundown of what had been going on. He even told the groups that were experiencing their turn learning under him, enough to satisfy their curiosity. It was a move he had figured might ease their nerves slightly, and while it did the male sensed that some were a bit more apprehensive about it. Though, that had been mitigated by the fact that they would be spending THIS part of the battle AWAY from the city where the boss would have appeared.

Afterward, a white-suited soldier jogged up to him, looking like he'd been running a long time. "Sir, you're needed down in the Engineering decks. Some of the men have discovered something you may want to see."

Now, THIS got his attention. It seemed that the Soldiers had managed to get access to one of the few areas Nico himself had difficulty getting into. Mostly because here was debris blocking the entrance, and Nico didn't have the time to get it all moved safely himself with everything else he had to prepare before the men got on board. Not to mention the fact that he had to clean up as well, while gathering all his willpower to ignore his raging Ghoul instincts regarding the food he caught. Now though, NOW he'd finally get a chance to see what was inside there. 'I wonder what we'll find...' the male thought, swallowing some saliva while giving a notification to his men via his Shingan and Bracer, before following the soldier inside the Vessel.

 **'Unknown, but I do hope that it will be worthwhile.'**

'You and me both, Biko...'

* * *

After walking through the Aircraft Carrier, Nico and the soldier found themselves at the entrance to the Engineering Bays, cleared of all its debris. The door itself looked as futuristic as the rest of the Vessel did on the inside, whilst the Soldier imputed some codes on a terminal next to the door. Those codes were what Nico had provided for him when he had hacked into the Mainframe to gather as much information as he possibly could. Once he entered them, the door slid sideways, opening the entrance up to the two as they went inside.

The moment they did, the two men saw that the room looked to be quite large, and housed many inactive-looking robot warriors that Nico and Castiel had been facing the majority of the Trial. They all looked like they were slouching, evidently expressing their state of being. "Looks like these things aren't going to be giving us any trouble..." the male mused thoughtfully, cupping his chin with his index finger and thumb while nodding.

"The boys managed to cut the links this Vessel's AI has with them, so even if it does activate these things would not be able to be used." the soldier explained, furrowing his brows. Nico didn't blame them, they probably had some negative feelings and wanted to vindicate themselves against them. Still, though, they could have been useful as an emergency defense against any invaders, though he figured that was his personal bias against humans talking. He well, REALLY didn't want to think about humans in a general manner at the moment.

Soon enough though, his thoughts got broken when he saw the soldier walking to something else something located to the left side of the Engineering Bay. Walking up to him without asking questions, Nico finally saw what it was that the Soldier had wanted him to see, his eyes widening to large margins at what sights presented themselves before him. 'Oh... my... Goddess...!'

 **'This... This is...!'**

Suspended before them, was a suit of Armour, much like that of the robot warriors before. However, aside from some visual similarities, that was pretty much it. Unlike those things, this Armour looked like the size of a seven foot tall human. Ironically, it looked a lot like those Armours those World Eaters sport back in Leanbox. However, they were a mix of blue with gold outlines, with strange golden symbols on the shoulders and chestplate. Sloped pauldrons, or shoulder plates, adorned the shoulder areas which were likely used to deflect enemy fire. in addition, Flanged poleyns (knee-plates), looked to provide extra protection over vulnerable joints. The Greaves had these incorporate gyroscopic stabilizers and can magnetize the soles of the Armour's boots, allowing one to walk on metal surfaces in treacherous terrain, including zero-gravity environments.

'What the hell...?' Nico wondered, gaping with his jaw unhinged. 'Why is something like THAT here?'

 **'I don't know, however I do believe that Zelretch is the cause somehow. This place IS full of different treasures from different dimensions. Perhaps he has visited ours multiple times and taken certain things to keep here. Though, this one DOES seem to be the only Armour of its kind so far, perhaps these robots intended to make them as vanguard soldiers before this invasion happened, or something along those lines.'**

Biko spoke within his mind, his voice as flat as normal whilst the male detected a slight sense of awe within. He couldn't blame him, either, after all Biko WAS a part of him and Nico could DEFINITELY feel the awe in himself too whilst looking at this Armour. An idea came over him, and Nico quickly raised his Bracer and accessed the information he had downloaded from the Vessel's Mainframe. Soon enough, he found the name of this particular set of Armour: Mark X Power Armour, this one being the Tacticus variant. According to this Data, it was made from this metal called 'Ceramite', a form of heat and shock-resistant ceramic material. To his surprise, Ceramite was capable of absorbing and dissipating even the most extreme thermal and directed-energy attacks, and conducts many other forms of electromagnetic radiation in such a way as to disperse it across a wide area. This makes Ceramite especially effective at providing protection against directed-energy and particle-based weapons. The thickest layer of Ceramite is over the chest-plate, protecting not just the Power Armour's cables, but also most of one's vital internal organs.

This 'Ceramite' seemed WAY superior to Silver Steel, in Nico's opinion.

 **'Touch it, Nico. I think we can use this Armour to improve our own.'**

Nico nodded his head to his Demon Persona's suggestions, and soon enough stepped forth till the male was right before the Armour. Slowly, he reached out to the Armour, placing his hand on its chestplate and closing his eyes. "I'd like to be alone for a bit, could you wait outside till I have completed my task?" he requested, not even looking at the Soldier behind him.

"Yes sir." The white suited soldier replied, saluting him before jogging out of the Engineering Bay.

This left Nico alone with this Armour, and once he felt this revelation, the male quickly applied his Desecration to the Armour. He intended to change this Armour to something more powerful, imagine just how much his or someone else wearing this Armour empowered by demonic power would be wearing it. He could imagine Tekken having a field day with it... if he could mold its size to suit her frame. Hell, he also would like to see how it would fare when Demonic Power augmented every atom inside the Armour's form, making them each stronger than they were previously.

However, the moment he did so, Nico's chest-mounted Armour Module began to shine brightly, right through his clothes. The light practically forced a gasp from the male, making him cover his eyes until the light died down... revealing that the Armour was nowhere to be seen when he lowered his arm to look at it. "Huh? What the...?" the male muttered, but soon got the answers his mind asked from his Demon Persona.

 **'Hmmm,** **interesting** **. It appears our own Armour has decided that this one could be used to improve its own systems. It has absorbed the other Armour into itself AS it was being Desecrated by your Demonic Power. Therefore, the boost it will gain will have been tremendous once we are able to deploy our Armour again.'**

Before Nico could respond to this, the male heard a large rumbling sound in the far distance, his eyes widening when he did so. The rumbling sounded like it was coming from somewhere on land, and if he thought it was what he thought it was, then odds were that Castiel was somehow involved. He had heard from some of the men that there was a final wave coming, but he had assured them that the Heir could handle it himself. They hadn't been too sure at first, however they had been quickly reminded that out of the two of them, Castiel was the better leader. Thus, he had ways of fighting that neither of them would expect.

'Still...' Nico thought as he quickly notified the soldier outside that he was finished, and that he should report to the rest of his comrades up on the Main Deck, before he himself Warped up to the Main Deck himself. 'Something tells me that guy is getting a lot of combat done as well. Probably an entire army judging by the sounds of those rumblings... i'd say he had been using explosions somewhat, too...' Nico knew PLENTY about explosions, he'd seen many of them during his many battles after all.

Hopefully the guy wouldn't get too caught up in the fight, though.

* * *

 _"_ Neat."

This is what Castiel remarked to himself thoughtfully, as he looked to the ground beneath him. Oh yeah, by the way, he was still in the air, suspended by his mismatched wings. In one fell swap, he had managed to eliminate at least a few hundred of the enemies, something that he had to smirk to himself about. Whilst he wasn't as good at taking down multiple opponents as he would have liked he had to admit to himself that he did, in fact, liked to experiment in large scale destruction. This trial was truly quite easy for the Heir, despite the fact that he could see why it could be hard for others. The key was the preparations, Castiel was someone who prepared the field for his absolute advantage and adding his experience in leading, this Trial was much easier to him than to most other warriors. For him this trial was less of one that he just needs to win and more of one he would win perfectly to make a point to himself, a point he felt he needed to make.

"I think this might just be enough. I doubt the wave of enemies will continue to appear considering how it is close to the time of the last boss to show up. But just as a precaution..." Castiel mused to himself before connecting to Lunala and Solgaleo. "Lunala, I want you to come to me now for this next fight, Solgaleo I want you to guard the north of the city until the start of the boss fight and if by then no enemy appears you are to come here to help too."

After hearing confirmation Castiel only had to wait for less than a minute to a shadow to appear below him for him to ride. Lunala was quite different than Solgaleo, he gave a heroic and upfront vibe when riding, almost like a General prized stallion riding to war. Meanwhile, Lunala gave him a more dark vibe, like he was a dark Asura leading an evil army to a greater goal. While on top of Lunala, Castiel felt a sense of calm that was hard to come by, but it was a shame that it was not to last as a new portal started opening in the space above the city's center.

Castiel also noticed how this portal was immensely bigger than the others before and that many smaller portals surged outside the city. 'Leaving Solgaleo outside was a good call after all.' the Heir couldn't help but think, a shiver traveling down his spine as he looked at the scene in front of him. He knew that these next few enemies would come in large numbers, and even if the soldiers in the carrier shoot them using the weapons there it would hardly be enough, especially when the enemies got closer to the city, making the option of using weapons against them impossible. Solgaleo could help there well enough, his abilities more than strong enough to deal with these numbers in the north where the portals were opening.

The main problem, however, was the big ass portal in the center of the city. This could easily spell doom for the mission if this is the size of the enemy, luckily Castiel was already prepared for protecting the city in the first place. "Grow, Protection Trees!" Castiel yelled while throwing his arms out, activating the runes he prepared beforehand to make the seeds bloom. It was surprisingly fast how the trees grew, equally matching the falling speed of the boss for this mission. And boy was this boss monstrous.

Seriously, it was gigantic in size, easily reaching over 35 meters tall, was completely robotic and looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but bigger and with two BIG AS FUCK cannons in his back. To be frank, the moment Castiel saw it, he instantly came to a realization in his gut. This beast would be a strong motherfucker, and by that he meant SERIOUSLY strong, hell the Heir could feel huge amounts of energy radiating from its core, which was already scary enough, but more than that he felt pretty sure that the metal it is made of was from the same kind that Kupriotes is made.

In essence, this was DEFINITELY a fitting final boss for this Trial.

Beating this motherfucker would not be easy. But at least he could see that the plants he'd put around had already begun taking the proper effect, protecting the buildings from the weights and simple moves of this creature.

Still, a hard battle would be fought... whelp, time to take charge of this situation by beating down this motherfucker.

* * *

 **'It looks like the final boss has appeared...'**

Nico nodded his head to his Demon Persona's words, scowling as he glared at the city. Or rather, the center of the city where he could sense the emergence of the final boss here. Nico didn't know what it was, but whatever it was DEFINITELY packed some punch behind it. He knew this because the MOMENT it had appeared, Castiel had done something and several tree-like structures has grown around the buildings, seemingly protecting them from being damaged by the creature's movements. No idea what they were, but as long as they worked then Nico would pay attention to more important things.

For example, like monitoring these troops.

It hadn't been stated, but Castiel HAD wanted Nico to remain with the troops at the Aircraft Carrier, in case of an attack on them. The Vessel had already been ordered to head out into the open sea by the Heir a couple of moments ago, and Nico had been all too eager to comply. With them being about 20 minutes out onto the ocean, they would be able to send in reinforcements with the robot army they had acquired, or dish out long ranged bombardments with the many gun emplacements dotting around the Vessel itself.

'Still, those smaller portals up north concern me. It's like those games where minions spawn in the boss room to help their master fight the player, becoming distractions for their master to land fatal blows easier.' Nico thought ominously, standing at the edge of the Vessel's Main Deck. His Trench Coat blew behind him from a breeze, his hair being ruffled alongside it while his eyes remained unflinchingly focused upon the city itself. Not to mention how his hands dug into his pockets, hiding how his Shingan ring had been glowing constantly since their departure. The constant glowing signified that it was active, as Nico constantly transmitted his thoughts over to the other troops, organizing them and keeping them monitored. Up in the air, Urthemiel flew in a circle, keeping an eye out for its master.

Part of him had considered letting Urthemiel turn the entire ocean into a wasteland by causing a drought with its flames. It had been before the initial assault on the vessel, though he hadn't given it much acknowledgment. It was in the heat of battle, after all. If he had done that then the Vessels from before wouldn't have been able to close in on the city, and he would have had an easier time taking care of them. However, thinking about it, Nico realized that would have been counterproductive in the long run, as then they wouldn't be able to use the Vessel nearly as well as they could now.

 **'Perhaps we can send Urthemiel over there. If I know Emiya like I think we do, then he will likely have sent something there already. Perhaps Urthemiel can lend his assistance.'**

Sending Urthemiel, huh? Well, ever since Urthemiel had been created (a rather painful memory as well, the male noted with a wince), it had been slowly developing with the experiences gained. It couldn't use its full power thanks to lacking experience, which was why Nico needed to have it involved in constant combat. The experience was best gained that way, after all, heck with enough it could probably learn how to send its thoughts to him like he did to it. Right now, it only sent him its emotions, which sometimes could be difficult to interpret. Once it got its thoughts and intelligence up, perhaps that could help it learn to use the full extent of its powers. Not to mention the Chaos Core and Armour he had yet to give it, he'll change that after this Trial.

Thus, Nico could understand the logic behind Biko's suggestion.

As if sensing what they were thinking (which if that were the case, Nico wouldn't doubt it), Urthemiel looked down, halting itself in the air for a few moments. It then proceeded to descend slowly, its two hind legs being the first to touch the Main deck before the rest of its body followed suit. Standing on all fours, Urthemiel looked towards his master, and while it couldn't speak, its eyes showed a depth too them that could only be expressed by emotion. Looking into his eyes, Nico could sense its desire, its desire to fight.

Urthemiel wasn't like those two familiars Castiel has gained, nope, far from it. Those two have this sort of familial bond between them. Like a pair of pets with a loving owner who gives them lots of affection and care. The IDEAL kind of pet/owner relationship.

It somewhat reminded him of slavery, and by the goddesses, he HATED slavery with a passion, but it seemed that they consented to it judging by how they were acting, he even felt that making any sort of insinuation about that would be answered by violence more likely. For Urthemiel however, it didn't have that kind of feel to it, instead of the relationship between them, aside from Nico having created it accidentally, felt more like the relationship between two warriors. They felt like they were siblings-in-arms, fellow fighters who could relate to each other on a level that very few could reach.

Even so, the type of relationship didn't matter, as one thing remained certain: both of them treated their Familiars with respect and honor, they would make sure to be there for them when they were in trouble.

With a nod, Nico decided to mentally tell the Archdemon to fly over to those portals. If there were enemies there, then it had to burn them to nothingness. If Castiel had sent anything there like Golems, his Familiars, or some detachment of troops, then it would have to treat them as allies.

Urthemiel nodded, roaring in acceptance as it took off towards the north, flames erupting around its wings that increased its speed. If it had put them around its body, Nico would have mistaken it for a Phoenix.

'Now, with that out of the way...' the male thought, before he cupped his chin. 'Time to see to how I can be of more assistance...'

* * *

Up in the north, perched atop a Building, Solgaleo growled and glowered at a force consisting of 700 enemies. About 300 Robot soldiers, and 400 Dragon Riders. All of them wielded swords and guns, each of them trained upon the Familiar, which was radiating this strong, white aura from its being. Not to mention, with its powers, it could sense more portals that were only an instance away from opening. Like they were on stand by in case these current forces The Lion-like creature had been sent there by its master to eradicate those who dare interrupt his fight with that metal monster, so that was what would happen.

However, it did not misunderstand one important fact, and that was the fact that these forces WOULD NOT END. Even if there was a set number there, more would be pouring in. There was a certain thing about familiars, and that was that they were better in tune with the nature around them. Solgaleo was no exception to this, it instantly knew that this place, despite it being artificial, had a 'nature' all its own that it could tune itself into. With that knowledge, it realized that until that monster in the city was defeated, none of these enemies would stop appearing. It was like trying to cut off a hydra's head, cut off one, two more shall take its place.

It was with this in mind, that the Lion-like being had been gathering energy from the sun above it since it arrived here, though it appeared that this army had no clue on what it was doing. That had been the reason why it hadn't attacked yet. they were waiting to see what it would do, which in essence would prove to be a MAJOR mistake on their parts. After a few more seconds (it had been standing here for a good few minutes), Solgaleo had its beam ready. With one loud roar, the Lion-type creature shot the pure white energy beam out of its mouth, curving the beam so that it swiped through a large portion of the army.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

A huge explosion covered the entire army as a result, completely shrouding them from view in a mass of smoke. Debris flew freely from the impact the beam had, and by the time that the smoke cleared up moments later, the Familiar saw that its attack had cleaved right through at least two thirds of the enemy ranks. One third was made of the Robot Soldiers, and the other was that of the Dragon Riders, but even then the rest of them didn't escape unscathed. All of them had some level of burns on their forms or another, and judging by how they gave ferocious glares towards Solgaleo, it looked like it wouldn't have the chance to charge up another Solar Beam.

In response, a grin slowly spread across its lips as it raised its paw, making the 'come hither' gesture.

And come they did.

Instantly, it teleported to a nearby building roof when an array of lasers came towards it from the front. The moment it reappeared, a pair of Dragon Riders made to charge at it from multiple flanks, intending on stabbing through it with their blades. Not something that Solgaleo felt afraid of as it bared its claws, each of them glowing pure white before reforming as steel claws. Claws made of this brilliantly stainless steel, that looked like they could cut up even the souls of their victims. Waiting for the perfect moment, Solgaleo roared as it leaped forth, slicing through the dragons and their riders in a couple of swift claw motions, landing on the ground whilst its targets fell to the rooftop floor dead.

Looking to the rest of the army, Solgaleo made to charge at them to continue its slaughter, when suddenly it sensed something approaching them at a VERY high speed. A speed that nearly rivaled its own, something it didn't believe was actually true. Looking to its source, Solgaleo and the army didn't see anything at first, just this blue spec in the distance... until it suddenly came upon them and Solgaleo quickly Teleported back to its original position. Something that, in hindsight, had been a great move, for the blue spec had sped right through the army's ranks, releasing these huge azure flames as it went that literally devoured everything they touched. Air, metal, nothing escaped their grasp.

All the airborne foes quickly rushed towards it, intent on cutting it down, had the spec not halted its motions in mid-air, hovered in place, before unleashing an orb-shaped wave of blue flames that pretty much wiped out the rest of the army in one fell swoop. The flames dispersed afterward, allowing Solgaleo to see that it was the Archdemon Familiar which belonged to that companion to its master. Solgaleo's eyes narrowed at the beast, watching it flap its wings in the air while using its senses to identify its energy. Never-mind its demonic, chaotic nature, those attacks had taken more than a substantial portion of its power from it. That was what it had sensed, as more portals began to open up.

A grunt escaped its lips as it shook its head in disappointment, this creature had similar problems to the one it is connected to. Its master criticized the other one for that one's pride, borderline arrogance, and it saw the same in its familiar. Solgaleo saw the same thing in the Familiar, which made it think that the two fit well with each other, two beings that didn't think things through nearly enough for their own good or that of the long run.

On the other side, Urthemiel took one look at the grounded Lion-like creature and searching through its memories told it that this creature was aligned to the companion of its creator. It remembered seeing it let its master ride it into battle, with considerable battle prowess being under its belt. However, it cared not for those accomplishments, all it cared about was its own creator. Nothing else mattered, whatever he said was law. Looking down, it noticed that there were more portals forming, which elected a snarl from the airborne Archdemon's maw.

These fools would REGRET angering it, they would rue the day they dared fight against it. That was its thought process whilst it dove down to engage them, paying Solgaleo no more attention.

* * *

Meanwhile, Castiel faced off against the boss, which he managed to recognize as looking eerily like Machinedramon from the Digimon franchise, only bigger and with a more diverse skill set. For instance, it had missiles that it could release from its arms, shoulders, and chest, or the constant presence of those annoying little satellites that were (while he monologued) launching lasers at him. Dick move, man. He also had those huge canons that was still not active but who knows how long this would last. Heck, even just moving already was an attack in and of itself as the sheer weight was more than enough to cause quite the damage.

But, Castiel managed to succeed in dealing with it somehow. Mostly due to using his wings as shields while also raining down as many attacks as he could on the boss. Unfortunately, it was only effective at getting it madder without any significant damage to speak off. Think of it as trying to destroy a steel wall with a few door-nails, and you get an idea of what his attacks had been doing. 'It seems like he has a minor magic resistance, magic attacks that I can spam freely are not effective against him at all. And adding the fact that I can't use my swords it creates a picture of disaster.' Castiel thought dispiritedly. Ultimately he was restrained in the magic department due to how relatively weak his magic circuits were making him capable of spamming weak attacks easily, but big ones were much harder and he needed a 'cool down' time after using them a certain number of times.

'Well, luckily I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.' Castiel thought as he dashed towards the Fall Tree with Lunala. But before he went he went out of his way to enrage it further by asking Lunala to destroy those annoying satellites. It wasn't even hard, Lunala also had something similar to those satellites from the start. A group of biological satellites came out of her wings, and all of them moved really fast and with plenty of penetrative power breaking the ones from Machinedramon quite easily.

And with that Castiel had managed to succeed, he had truly pissed it off, making it so infuriated that it decided to follow him. A bad choice considering that when they were close enough to the said Tree (that still was quite a bit taller than Machinedramon) Lunala teleported the two of them to right behind their enemy. It made to turn and face them, but its momentum, unfortunately for it, proved too big to be stopped this quickly. And the fact that Lunala used her Moongleist Beam, knocking it forward while leaving a large scorch mark on its back was NOT helping him stop in time.

And then, finally, he entered the Heir's trap. Castiel had to stop himself from griming from ear to ear as he saw that plant start doing its job, dropping drops of water that could as well be compared to a mid high-class water mage attack, but instead of one or two at second it was more along the lines of 7 to 8 THOUSAND water missiles. Even its defenses were not enough to come out unscratched, when it managed to get out it was already covered in kneads, it was clear that it took quite the damage. It was about to aim at Castiel, try to get close and all when its feet couldn't move anymore.

Castiel could not hold his smirk as he saw his trap working. Binding Three doing wonders by holding its feet in the ground, making it a stationary target.

BOOM

Ready for Nico to blast him away.

As if on cue (which Castiel knew to be so) a dozen or so shell rounds came from the skies and peppered the Machinedramon, falling onto its form like rain and sending it crashing to the ground. A furious roar escaped its mechanical maw, faint sparks flying from its form before it was pelted again. Soon enough, it would began getting pelted by shots every 3 seconds or so, and considering its bulk, it wouldn't be able to react in time to these barrages.

That had been Castiel's plan from the beginning, to draw this fucker to a place where they could strike at him with the Aircraft Carrier's heavy ordinance and restrain it there long enough for the shots to land. It had been a risky bet, as a whole number of things could have gone wrong. For example, it could have ignored Castiel to go crazy around the city, blasting everything in sight. After all, the Heir was merely a bug to it, in terms of size. Nothing worth giving a damn about. Not to mention his Trees wouldn't have formed their protection over an entire city as he didn't have enough of them. In another scenario, this thing could have had a better reaction time and thus fired those back cannons the exact MOMENT it crossed through that portal into the city, blowing it up before the trees could be fully grown.

However, thankfully that hadn't happened. Mostly due to surprise and lack of information on the enemy's part, but meh.

'Looks like this could be the loophole that we could use.' the Heir thought to himself, remembering what the information said about this trial before they had arrived. It had been said that they couldn't use anything metal, but NOTHING had been said that anything else couldn't. For example, the soldiers using the enemy's own technology against them. It was something that had been done throughout human history, using an enemy's technology to form some kind of counter to their attacks, that is. There had also been a signal as well, one that he had told Nico about before the battle had begun when the enemy came.

A signal that took the form of the water missiles hitting the enemy dead on the moment it had been caught in this trap. Once that happened, Nico would launch shooting after shooting till the enemy would be too weak to do anything, and then Castiel could use some of his stronger magics to finish it off. It was a sound strategy, and it should work against this adversary.

Just then, Castiel noticed something, something that made his eyebrows furrow. That something, was the back cannons shifting till they were aligned in a certain direction, a direction that was away from him... and in the direction of the Vessel bombing it. 'Heh, fool. The Aircraft Carrier's too far out for that to do any good. Its just a wasted effort...' he thought to himself, smugly with eyes twinkling in amusement. He had calculated the distance the shots of the carrier would likely travel without losing momentum or destructive force and told Nico about how he should keep a set distance based on it, damage to the city would be innevitable but it would not be that significant and the safety of the soldiers would be ensured this way as the distance would allow for evasive measures to the carrier in case the enemy attacked.

It was a solid plan, one that would work.

Looking in the direction the Cannons were facing though, something caught Castiel's attention, again. Didn't the vessel look... closer than he had originally estimated? Like, way closer than what he said should be the limit of how close they could be, and still approaching at fast speed? No, Castiel said to himself, Nico wouldn't be stupid enough to ignore the plan for no good reason and not say a single fucking word just like that, Castiel had to tell himself that as proof of the contrary was shown to him.

That had been his sole thought before the sounds of wingbeats, cannons prepping to fire and curse words towards a certain redhead filled his ears.

* * *

'Target hit confirmed! Reload, then fire again!'

 _'SIR!'_

Nico mentally smirked to himself, having embedded his Rinkaku into the Aircraft Carrier's main deck and made it elevate him to a height where he could see the rounds that he had launched hit the target. The Shingan ring stayed strong, helping him transmit his thoughts as commands to the minds of his men, each of them working double time with the motivation that they were indeed getting back at the final boss that dared destroy their city. Not to mention, he could feel Urthemiel fighting over at the north with his senses and their link, alongside something that seemed to be made from the heat of the sun itself. Nico figured it was one of Castiel's familiars that was the source.

 **'Looks like the first barrage was a hit.'**

'Yeah, looks like. We'll keep the pressure on until we have no ammo left, that should be enough to weaken it so that Emiya can finish it himself.'

 **'Agreed.'**

That had been the signal, Nico realized. The moment that the Final Boss monster had been peppered with those water projectiles (and Nico would NOT underestimate water considering his experiences in the past), he had quickly ordered them to start shooting the monster with the canons. However, Nico also found that thanks to the damage that they had taken, their long range ordinance wouldn't be as accurate as they should be. It had been something he'd been informed of by his men, so he had made a decision to bring the carrier closer to the enemy, so that they could have a better chance of hitting it and not the buildings as he didn't want to lose the points from the loss of the buildings. Unfortunately for him, this had been reported WAY too late in the preparations to tell Castiel and he got too caught up on the moment to remember informing Castiel of this information and when he remembered to relay this it was already in motion so he could only bite the bullet, there was no going back.

Thus, he had this constant nagging feeling in his gut, this anxiety that plagued him every second. It felt like every breath may very well be his last, and that he could have very well done something completely and utterly stupid. Moving closer carried risks, he knew that but the benefits were too good for him that wanted the extra points. What was this feeling though? Why did it feel like he had done something stupid again? He didn't have much of a choice, it was either this or risk their ordinance failing and then the enemy may target them instead! Well, that was what Nico tried to tell himself, but his gut refused to settle down.

Still, Nico had to place everything in his own power, his power to stop any attacks from getting near the carrier. He placed faith in his own power before, so now should be no different.

The barrage's continued to fire like short bursts of rainfall, Nico mentally keeping tabs on everything whilst he confirmed the hits for his men. He used the Shingan to keep orders coming, to keep the organization for the men as strong as possible. There had been no room for doubt, no room for error. Just a single mistake or a moment's hesitation could be costly.

Even so, the feelings in his gut STILL wouldn't leave him. Why the hell not?!

Just then, a soldier's voice broke through to him via a Magic Circle at his ear, his voice filled with panic whilst alarms rang through the background. "Commander DEATHSTROKE, we have trouble! The enemy has locked on to us! There's a mass of energy gathering where Commander Emiya is located!" He yelled, causing Nico to feel like he had dropped his stomach. Eyes widened as horror filled him, a sense of impending doom as he saw the light gathering from the city. 'Oh sit, not good, not good at all!'

'KING, YOU IDIOT!'

* * *

It happened so quick that Nico could hardly keep up with it all. All his brain could register at the moment was the brief flash of light, a loud explosion and loads of different sounds. Sounds that he couldn't identify right now.

By the time that he could have grasped himself, Nico found himself... well, facing one situation alright. A very unsettling one.

The feeling in his gut? Whelp, it intensified.

Finally, Nico managed to look around, slowly at first though, as he took in his surroundings.

Death.

No one in the command center was left alive, all of them are dead.

This realization was like a bucket of cold water over Nico, especially when he saw that feather that Castiel gave him disintegrating in front of him. He didn't even feel anything, but it was clear that there should be a large amount of damage.

He was protected, he failed again and again during this mission, made more mistakes that he could count, allowed for those who he SHOULD have protected, those who followed HIS orders, to die while he did nothing.

'STOP BEING A BITCH, KING!' the white Nico said when he noticed the train of thought that Nico was going through. Good thing he had managed to use their combined instincts, exercising the limited control he had over Nico's instincts, and even then it had been due to the shock of what had happened, to save them from that attack. 'THEY WERE INFERIOR AND WEAK, THEY DIED AND THAT IS THAT. WHY SHOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT IT?'

 **'I find myself agreeing with the white one. In the end, they were just too weak. It was not your fault that they died. You should now focus on your mission, this is all that matters now. If you win the fight then everything is fine.'** Biko commented on the side, trying to make Nico let this go. However, it was also true that he did not care about these soldiers, his demonic nature made him much colder to others that were not intimately connected to him or the main aspect. It wasn't something that was unexpected, at least to Nico, since he knew him the longest.

Nico ultimately listened to them, it was just easier to push the blame on those who die and the enemy.

Putting on a resolute face he flew away, focusing on completing his mission. This is what he was good at, and this is what he was going to do.

* * *

Castiel was not going great. He managed to stop most of the shot using his own body, but the problem was that his instincts ended up moving faster than his thoughts and he moved to the front of the blast BEFORE he activated his name. It was only a fraction of a second, but this alone was enough for him to have plenty of burn marks and he could feel some bones being dislocated.

'Not too bad' was his current impression of his situation, and that was because he took into account the fact that he was currently with **Siegfried** activated. He was still quite used to getting MUCH worse to wear during his fights, to the point that all he did when he felt this amount of pain was grimace a bit before pulling out a Phenex Tear and drink it.

Instantly he felt his bones getting back in place and the damaged skin and bones returned to normal at high speeds.

After the healing was complete he realized that the barrage stopped, which means-

"GGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

That the mechanical dino had the time to free himself.

Evading a right hook from his drilling arm Castiel flew high, and it was then that he noticed that his magic circuits were far too heated up, their weakness limiting him yet again, again he felt how he was not enough.

'Shit, is this my limit already?' Castiel thought while evading another attack from the monster. In the end, his circuits limited him simply way too much, he could not use magic nearly as much as he would like, and without the capacity of using his weapons, the situation was quite dire. 'I probably hit my limit while stopping that canon.' was what Castiel mused with a grimace while avoiding the enemy pursue and missiles.

His situation was too dire to ignore, it was to the point that he chose to mount on Lunala so as not to force himself any further and try to cool down his magic circuits as soon as possible.

Just then, he noticed a black and red blur suddenly fly past him at high speeds.

"Did I took too long?" Came Nico's voice before he went right past Castiel to fight the boss.

This raised an eyebrow of Castiel, this should NOT be happening, as far as he knew Nico should be on the carrier trying to salvage the situation. Or at least making sure that there would be no soldiers left unsaved.

Calming down Castiel decided to leave Nico to do the rest, he still needed quite a while before his circuits were back on track and he did NOT want to risk frying them any further.

'Let's call there, just to make sure that everything is going alright and to hear a status report.' Castiel decided before calling.

A few moments later, while ignoring the explosions happening everywhere around him, Castiel's face got quite interesting. Deathly pale, to the point that he looked like a ghost while also a furious glare formed the more he heard.

He gave several MUCH needed orders to various personal and then closed his eyes. He was not mad, nor angry, no those are just too simple words to describe the utter EXPLOSIVE HATE he felt this instant. He had decided, then and there, that he needed to talk to Nico to set some things straight.

And it would NOT be a pretty sight.

* * *

BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, ,BAM, ,BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!

Cold fury flowed through his blood, setting it alight like the flames that he commanded. An indescribable heat ROARED within his gut, matching the kind of intensity that his Hellfire possessed when he could use its true form. The fiery sensation within fueled him, filled his mind, body and soul with a murderous desire, a desire that pretty much became his sole focus, forming a single purpose within Nico's mind:

Rip, this fucker, to shreds.

Nico didn't care anymore, he held nothing back when he charged at the beast, he held nothing back at all. He poured everything he had into his blows, his Rinkaku descending upon the creature with his Bikaku in a hybrid of frenzied slashes, stabs, thrusts and smashes like a deadly dance of death. His Rinkaku and Bikaku could hardly be distinguished between each of their strikes. It all registered the same towards the mechanical dino-whatever, as it struggled in vain to hold up against the vicious, animalistic onslaught against its form by his Kagune.

His Kagune, the two 'fangs' he was able to use anyways, descended upon it with rapid attention, leaving barely any time for the creature to comprehend what was happening before the next onslaught began. Gradually, it began getting forced back, step by step it moved backward, trying its hardest to block the appendages from getting too close to its vitals. The thing was, that there were still some attacks that got through, ones made mostly by the Rinkaku though thanks to its high cutting ability. An ability formed from its cloaking via vibrations which would have made the creator of the High-Frequency blades jealous as all hell.

Yet, that wasn't all Nico used against it, he DID say that he wasn't going to hold anything back.

His hands, which were practically concealed by orangish red Hellfire, blazed as bright as the flames of hell themselves as Nico hurled fireball after fireball at speeds that would rival Gatling guns, his arms a blur as he poured all his emotions into the flames, the biggest feeling being his rage. Rage at this thing for killing off the men that he commanded, the men that he SHOULD have protected as they were weaker than him. They hadn't known the things that he had, they hadn't seen the shit that he had. They should have lived with their families after this, they should have survived this war! They didn't have to die like dogs, they should have at least survived the aftermath of this battle! Things had gone off rocky at first, he'll admit that, but they had gotten better! Now because of this fucker, it had all gone down the drain.

Nico couldn't hear the voices of his other aspects trying to speak to him, nothing registered to him anymore but the desire to make this fucker pay for what it had done. For the crime of killing the men, he had been trying to make it up to for his mistakes.

The attacks that landed thanks to his Hellfire did their thing, burning their way through the monster's Armour. It had to have been fire resistant, because his flames had been barely able to heat it up for the longest time. However, thanks to the constant barrage from them, the Armour began to give way to the heat. The male saw this, the proof being how the various holes that had formed on the being's body gradually turning a deep orangish color. Not so different from when metal was put inside a furnace by a Blacksmith tying to forge a sword.

Rage reaching a new height, Nico unleashed the Red Rage Ring's power on himself, letting ALL of its rage explode into him and fuel his desire for vengeance further. Also, hidden under his Trench coat, a certain mark on his right shoulder began to shine a brilliant crimson light, and with that, the male felt his desire for vengeance, his WRATH, intensify even further. If he were to make an estimate (though he didn't right now due to the combat) then he would think that he had multiple planets worth of raw fury and murderous vengeance coursing through him right now. Hell, his whole body glowed an eerie red light thanks to the Demonic Power coursing through him, responding to his emotions.

Flame wisps burned from his being, heating the air around them to an immense degree. Yet, with all of this going on, Nico still managed to retain some sense of self, enough to stop any damage from being dealt with the buildings and the trees protecting them. As furious as he was, Nico had no desire to endanger the mission any more than he probably had. Why the HELL did he have to be a leader for this trial? Why the FUCK?! He wasn't a leader, he was a soldier, a killer, a warrior! He wasn't meant to lead people, if anything he felt like he'd only be able to lead an army of MONSTERS, rather than humans! At least they would not mind a loss or two, they would only care for the strength of the leader, something he had in spades! That's simply what he was, a monster!

Eventually, Nico saw that the beast tried to strike back by bringing its drill-like claw down on him. It had sensed an opening, and exploited it he figured, though thanks to his emotions, Nico felt like he was on high at the moment. His Rinkaku whipped upwards, slamming into the arm and blowing it back, which made the Dino stumble backward even more, electing a dark look of satisfaction from the teen. Nico swiftly pulled up the hood of his Trench Coat, donning his Mask and pulled off the thing over his eye, allowing his insanity-filled Kakugan to be shown. His Bikaku then swung all 4 of its appendages at once, unloading on the monster.

All of them hit their mark, impaling the robot at every hole his assault had made, no matter how big or small. With a grin so savage it resembled a patient in an insane asylum, Nico clicked his fingers and every projectile inside the robot exploded, the force making it howl in agony as it got sent flying out of the city. He could faintly make out the sight of its back cannons exploding into pieces, each one unceremoniously falling to the ground below.

Not wanting it to get away, Nico morphed his Rinkaku into wings, and then took off after it.

* * *

His prey landed on one of the plains, which one Nico didn't give a flying fuck about, rolling backward till it used the momentum to get back on its feet, digging its arm into the ground to slow its movement. The moment that it stopped all motion, it looked up and growled at the approaching Nico, who looked more like a flaming meteor as he shot down towards it with a furious look in his sole Kakugan eye. It opened its shoulders and chest, some of the few areas that were less damaged than the other parts of its body thanks to Nico's Kagune, before unleashing a salvo of 60 missiles in total at him.

'Hah, that fucker thinks mere MISSILES will stop me?!'

If he wasn't so angry, then Nico would have laughed at the thought.

Instead, Nico unleashed his Bikaku and Rinkaku (the former having already regrown its Talons) in a frenzied mass of wicked slashes. Each one sliced through the missiles while the heat from the crimson aura burned the rest into nothingness. He soon landed in front of the creature, and when it swung its claw at him Nico had his Bikaku block it, wrapping around the limb before lifting it into the air. The weight didn't come as an issue to the male, for his Kagune had lifted things MUCH heavier in comparison.

At that point, the male had done something that, if he was honest, felt fucking therapeutic right about now.

SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM-SLAM!

... Basically, Nico commenced the process of repeatedly slamming his opponent into the ground whilst pouring his intense emotions into each slam.

A moment later, the male then tossed the creature away, his Rinkaku slamming into the ground to propel him upwards, launching him high into the air. This allowed the creature to get its bearings and look up... only to quickly raise its hand to fire a large energy beam to blow up a barrage of those pesky explosive projectiles from the redhead's Bikaku.

'So, it thinks THAT'LL be enough to stop me, huh? Well, let's show it how WRONG that way of thinking is!'

That was what he thought whilst Nico cackled evilly, his Kakugan eye pulsing with power, his insanity-filled gaze making his look all the crazier. Twisting himself, Nico expertly dodged the energy beam, rearing his right arm back before thrusting it forwards, launching a Fiery fist towards his opponent. On the halfway point of its journey though, the fist instantly enlarged itself so that it would rival the monster's size, much to its shock.

It quickly jumped out the way of that attack, not wanting to get burned into nothingness like its missiles. Its processors had calculated that if it had been hit by that, the odds that it would have been reduced to cinders had been well above the safety threshold. Not something it wanted to think about, as it instead focused on unloading more missiles at him.

In response, Nico deflected them with his Kagune after landing in a kneeling position, then he threw his right arm upwards, a series of fiery geysers made from Hellfire erupting around the beast, restraining its movement.

"Not letting you get away this time!"

The beast roared at him, intending to just forgo ranged attacks and charge at him directly... when it noticed that its feet wouldn't respond to its command. Looking down, it noticed that, to its shock and horror, that Nico's Bikaku had buried into the ground and surfaced beneath it, coiling around its legs to hold it in place. The machine-based monster growled as it tried to break free, but to no avail as the Bikaku's strength proved to be greater than it had anticipated. Hell, everything about this variable hadn't been anticipated very well. It had assumed that the multi-winged blonde human would be the greater threat of the two, and that this one simply had the ability to draw attention to himself...

How wrong those calculations had been.

For a moment, Nico swore he saw a look of shock form on its face, but how could that happen? Nope, not going to think about it, he had his prey right where he wanted it, immobilized and unable to get away from his final attack. Thanks to his move of knocking it out of the city, Nico didn't need to worry about the damage that his next attack would cause, since it wouldn't reach the city with how far they were from it. Thus, Nico decided to end it, putting all his remaining emotions and Demonic Power into this last attack whilst throwing his hand out.

From his hand, a small hand generated itself. Its size didn't last though, as the flames expanded and expanded the more power was pumped into it. In seconds, Nico had a fist that seemed ten times the monster's size in front of him, set in a closed fist for a punch that would be the deciding factor for this match. The difference between him and Castiel, was that Nico wasn't limited by his own powers, or his body for that matter. He had accepted himself as a monster before coming here, so he could use his Ghoul side to a greater extent that he had been, and his demonic powers were growing at a consistent enough speed, too.

"Now... BURN!"

With that calling, Nico thrust his hand forwards, and the fiery fist shot forth like a bullet. Its size did not give away how fast it would be, and in one moment it had closed the distance between him and his opponent. In the instant that they connected, an explosion the size and shape of a nuclear warhead erupted in front of him, a loud 'BOOM!' filling Nico's ears.

It was over, Nico had won... by a landslide, actually.

* * *

The battle over, Nico grunted and heaved heavily, his upper body leaning forwards before he fell to one knee, placing one hand on the ground for support whilst his other one went to his kneecap. His Bikaku stabbed itself into the ground around him, his Rinkaku laying itself instead like someone who was lazing about on a beach. His aura vanished out of existence, his body restoring itself to normal levels whilst sweat dripped from his forehead from his prolonged exertion. Hell, he felt drained in both the physical and the emotional sense, thanks to the insane level of negative emotion that he had used to fuel his powers. His reserves may not be the same as Castiel's whose holy power seemed almost endless, but he had ways of amplifying his reserves for similar levels of destruction.

Heck, when he looked up Nico noticed that half the entire plains had become one big smoking hot crater. Smoke trails flew throughout the edges and interior, whilst heat could be felt on his face from the amount of Hellfire he had used. Whilst it had not been in its true form, the level of heat he had felt from this devastation definitely felt like he had. Yet, he hadn't, and with this, he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he used his Hellfire's true form.

Nico shuddered at the thought.

'Wow... that... has to be the angriest I have been in a long while...' Nico thought to himself, hanging his head to give his body a chance to recover his stamina. 'Can't believe I lost it like that...'

 **'It seems that, despite what we said, your mind continued to think about the losses you were dealt back there, and wanted vengeance...'**

Mentally, Nico frowned as the memory of that attack came to the forefront of his mind. He remembered the emotions that had came through him the moment he set off to take out that fucker:

Shock,

Disbelief,

Despair,

Regret,

Frustration,

and finally... RAGE.

This battle, Nico had fought it with everything he had, and despite the exhaustion running through his system, Nico still felt some sort of pride fill him inside. Pride, pride in that he had done it. He had taken down the enemy that dared kill those under him, he had won the fight in the end by his own strength. That was enough to at least make sure that he had done something right, that he didn't fail completely even if some of those under him didn't manage to survive. They were what can only be called weak, he had seen more deaths of the weak that he could care to count in his world so this was actually relatively very normal in his eyes.

The strong survive and the week dies, this is what was like in his world.

Before he could think more, Nico felt a presence approaching... and for some reason, he got a bad feeling about it.

* * *

Upon landing and retracting his wings, Castiel approached the tired warrior, his footwear making incredibly audible sounds to both of them. Nico noticed him approaching, but his fatigue was responsible for him failing to react much. On the Heir's end, he tried to hide it but it was clear that the other guy was still feeling pride from this fiasco. When he got close enough he did not wait for any talk, he had something of much more important to do, his emotions as someone raised to lead and that was raised for such, that was raised to care first, second, and third more for his subordinates than to his own safety, that saw clearly how much of a pure mistake it was to trust Nico to do even just what was agreed, it all was just too much. His emotions were too much and there was only one way he could vent them right now.

PUNCH

He punched Nico, right in the face. Or rather, he would have had a Bikaku Kagune not instinctively defended its master, still having strength left to do so, by wrapping around his limb. Still, the force of the shockwave created this headwind that slammed into Nico with just as much force, ruffling his hood and pushing him back for a few centimeters. Because of the direction it came from, it didn't blow the hood off, a small benefit if nothing else.

Nevertheless, it DEFINITELY caught his attention.

Slowly, Nico raised his head, his lone Kakugan eye narrowing at the angry look on the blonde's face. "What... the hell? Why... the FUCK... did you.. just do that?" Nico questioned, irritation and fury rising in his voice again despite his fatigue. Even in his current state, Nico already began steadily showing signs of wanting to rip the heir to pieces to daring to doubt his capacity, he did give the final strike to the monster and if anything he just did his job and slain the monster, at least the objective was done right! There were many mistakes, true, but being punched without being told anything was not right. That is what was in his mind as he turned with hate to the heir who had attacked without any good reason as far as Nico was concerned. Though, if his Red Rage Ring hadn't been used so much, it would have responded and amplified his anger.

Said heir, however, didn't care, however not one bit as he continued looking around and seeing the scene around him. The disaster that was their surroundings.

"WHY? You, of all people, have the gal of asking me WHY?" Castiel yelled with such fury that even Nico took a step back, his Kagune throwing the arm it had caught aside in favor of a defensive stance. It had been so bad, that the dark powers within the Heir stirred and the feeling of foreboding became such that even the other personas of Nico shut up after feeling it. "You don't have the RIGHT to ask me WHY I did that! You already screwed up ENOUGH for this whole mission and more! Why do you think you have ANY right to question anyone? Because you beat the boss in the end? Just being strong is far, FAR from enough to deserve praise after your screw ups. If you doubt that come with me, I want you to still feel pride for what you did after you see this."

With his piece said, although there would be so much more, Castiel turned his back and started flying towards the carrier, his face stoic as he tried to supress his emotions and the evil energy that was starting to react in his soul making his mood even worst. Meanwhile, baffled, and yet still angry, Nico ended up following him by morphing his Rinkaku for flight while keeping his Bikaku out, not because he felt he had to know but more because he just could not say no to Castiel right now. There was just something about him, a charisma of sorts, that compelled him to follow his orders.

After the two got close enough Castiel looked impassively at the wreckage in front of him. The soldiers were desperately trying their best to rescue any survivors, cries of pain and loss echoed all around as a man cried for his dead brother, a dad cried over his two sons, as people were desperate to find ANYTHING of their dead friends. This scene was a visage of hell for the two teens, but the next few words of Castiel made Nico feel many hundreds of thousands of times worse.

"This happened because of YOUR decision. Not only because you approached the carrier beyond what you should if you had just followed what I have instructed clearly but also because of your hastiness." The heir explained. Castiel's eyes almost glowed with righteous anger as he turned and glared at Nico, whose Kagune readied itself for a potential defensive measure. "As soon as this disaster happened you didn't think for a second about it, you just ran to fight without a second thought, without considering even for a moment about the soldiers that were putting their LIVES on your hands, that were trusting their very lives to you. You could have organized a rescue party in a matter of seconds, heck you could have rescued them yourself if you wanted by using those tentacles things of yours quite fast considering what I've seen so far of your skills, but all you did was run to do battle on your own terms. You should have done better than this."

Castiel's words rung like a bell through Nico's mind, purging him of the anger and other emotions he had felt. Instead, they were replaced by shock, horror, and a painful twisting sensation in his gut. He had felt this sensation before, as in before the Vessel had been attacked. Only this time, it had felt much worse. His hands clenched into fists as his lone eye, still in its Kakugan form, cast its gaze on the horrendous background that Castiel showed him. A sight that he had caused with his own actions. Perhaps his earlier thoughts were true, that he WAS better off leading monsters instead of humans. He was more the former than the latter anyways. "I-I should never have led them..." Nico muttered under his breath, Kagune trembling alongside the shaking, furious Heir as he heard those words loud and clear. "I-I-I-I should only lead monsters and never hu-"

PUNCH

Castiel punched Nico again, this time the punch was even stronger, to the point that even though his Kagune managed to catch it, the headwind that came from it made Nico slide away from him by 20 meters, his Kagune taking Castiel along with it. Nico didn't notice, and neither did Castiel, that something happened to the Rinkaku Tentacle used to catch the punch, as energy seemed to surge through it and hardened the entire structure to a state stronger than steel itself. As such, Nico hardly felt as much of the force as he should have.

Biko and his Ghoul Persona did somewhat, though.

He would have lost balance if he hadn't jammed his feet into the ground, same with the redhead.

"So turn to those who DIED on your orders and tell them this. That they were wrong in trusting your judgment, that THEY are the responsible for this and not you. Go on, are you going to face your mistakes or be a coward about them?" he spat, pumping what remained of his power to free his arm from the Bikaku. Ordinarily that wouldn't have been possible unless he activated his left arm Spirit Bone, but he had too much anger in him to care. It just reminded him too much of Castiel's own previous mistake, the overconfidence that could have ruined everyone that cared for him was just too clear on his mind, the marks of it still on his body because of it, and right now he was seeing someone similar but even worst about it. Castiel was overconfident about his strategy before everything went to shit on his world, Nico, however, wasn't even thinking at all and being even worst, and that infuriated Castiel.

Nico did not know what to say, his two personas talking to him without stop trying to explain things in a way that agreed with Nico, to make him feel better with himself. But, this all changed when one man crawled forward. He didn't have any legs, and it looked like bandages had already been applied to them, but even so he seemed to be glaring at the Heir, much to Nico's shock. "Stop accusing commander DEATHSTROKE, he didn't run away from his responsibilities!" he yelled with his entire soul. The redhead recognized him, he had been the one that he transferred orders to the most with his Shingan, as well as had been the one that he talked to first.

And with that, like the domino effect occurring, other voices started agreeing with him, but instead of feeling better Nico felt worse as he noticed how many of them were lacking members or were extremely hurt. Castiel looked at Nico and continued.

"So, is this all you amount for? Someone that would run away on the time of need, that would run away from their responsibilities? Can't you even man up and actually try to make it better now?" He then spits to the side and said. "You make me sick." With this Castiel left, he still wanted to look over the wreckage of the boss to see if there was anything that could be used on the future, maybe see if he can get anything to help his friends back home as he wanted them to be safer, one person being disabled like he was is enough. Meanwhile, Nico stood there, hearing the praise of those he failed while standing above the marks of what he felt were his mistakes.

A visage that he would never forget.


End file.
